Deadline reports that ABC has struck a new deal with Chris Brancato, a veteran producer of such shows as Hannibal and Narcos, and along the way it mentions that the pilot for Of Kings and Prophets — which Brancato is joining as an executive producer — “was filmed in South Africa.” Note the past tense.
Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva writes:
The project is still in the pilot stage but I hear the intention is for Brancato to serve as showrunner. The idea is to set up a writers room and work on scripts (I heard as many as 15) towards a potential straight-to-series order.
So, has the pilot been filmed already? Not really, but it’s certainly under way.
For one thing, producers Mahyad Tousi and Bill Collage tweeted just eight days ago that the actors had just done a table read for the pilot:
Great read today! We're so very proud & excited @maisie_rs @Simone_Kessell @haazsleiman @iJamesFloyd @rezaaslan @billcollage pass it on plz.
— Mahyad Tousi (@MahyadT) April 9, 2015
Powerful, moving table read today for @ABCNetwork's #KingsAndProphets #KAP. #FAITH
https://t.co/hUzsYkGQ1a
— Bill Collage (@billcollage) April 9, 2015
Around that time, Simone Kessell, who is playing King Saul’s wife Ahinoam, posted a picture to her Instagram account that was accompanied by a caption which seems to suggest that she was still figuring out the character’s “look” at that time:
Also around that time, writer-producer Adam Cooper posted a video of what appears to be a set that was still under construction:
Though some sets were being built a whole month ago, apparently:
More recently, producer Reza Aslan tweeted that shooting started just last Monday:
Day 1 shooting for our @BoomGenStudios ABC pilot #OfKings&Prophets and the good news is the lion didn't kill anyone. http://t.co/CxPJRluCwA
— Reza Aslan (@rezaaslan) April 13, 2015
I’m guessing that might be one of the lions depicted in this three-week-old video:
Cooper also posted this video of cameramen and sheep just yesterday…
…as well as this picture of a throne room (presumably King Saul’s?):
So, there you go. They’ve only just started shooting the pilot, and the cameras are still very much rolling. Can’t wait to see what Ray Winstone — who played the “king” Tubal-Cain in Darren Aronofsky’s Noah — looks like as King Saul!
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