Filming resumes in Romania on the much-anticipated adaptation of Jules Verne’s classic
adventure, Around The World In 80 Days starring multi-award winning actor David Tennant
(Des, Good Omens) as literature’s greatest explorer, Phileas Fogg. Production of the eight-part
series will be spread across locations and studios in Romania and South Africa over a five-month
period.
Joining Tennant to make up Fogg’s intrepid trio of travellers are French actor Ibrahim Koma
(OSS 177, Wulu) as Fogg’s irrepressible valet, Passepartout and Leonie Benesch (The Crown,
Babylon Berlin) as determined and headstrong journalist, Abigail ‘Fix’ Fortescue.
Also starring as series regulars are Jason Watkins (Des, The Lost Honour of Christopher
Jefferies) as Fix’s father and newspaper owner, Bernard Fortescue and Peter Sullivan (Poldark,
The Borgias) as Fogg’s sceptical childhood friend, Nyle Bellamy with whom Fogg makes an
outrageous wager to circumnavigate the globe in eighty days.
Guest actors joining the cast include Lindsay Duncan (A Discovery of Witches, Le Weekend),
Dolly Wells (Dracula, The Pursuit of Love), Richard Wilson (Merlin, One Foot in the Grave),
Faical Elkihel (The Spy, Prison Break), Anthony Flanagan (The Terror, Gentleman Jack), Gary
Beadle (Small Axe, Patrick Melrose) and Giovanni Scifoni (DOC – Nelle Tue Mani, La Mia
Jungla).
The series, adapted by a team of renowned writers led by Ashley Pharoah (Life on Mars, The
Living and the Dead) and Caleb Ranson (Child of Mine, Heartless), is a truly international drama,
helmed by film, television and music video director Steve Barron (The Durrells, Treasure Island)
with Charles Beeson (The Mentalist, Supernatural) also directing a number of episodes. The
producer is Peter McAleese (The Gunman, Harley & The Davidsons).
Around The World In 80 Days is a Slim Film + Television and Federation co-production for the
European Alliance formed by France Télévisions, ZDF and RAI, with additional co-production
partners, Peu Communications in South Africa, MASTERPIECE in the US, Be-FILMS and RTBF
in Belgium and associate produced by Daro Film. France Télévisions introduced the project to
their Alliance broadcasting partners; Germany’s ZDF and Italy’s RAI, while Seven West Media
have backed production and will broadcast the drama in Australia. The series has been acquired
by BBC in the UK and RTS in Switzerland.

Around The World In 80 Days is executive produced by Simon Crawford Collins for Slim,
Lionel Uzan and Pascal Breton for Federation, Winnie Serite for Peu Communications and
Susanne Simpson for MASTERPIECE.
Nathalie Biancolli (France Télévisions) said: “We are very delighted to announce the re-start of
filming on Around The World In 80 Days with our new American partner Masterpiece PBS who
join France Televisions and The European Alliance (ZDF and RAI) in this incredible adventure. I
really would like to thank our production partners Federation Entertainment and Slim Film +
Television who did a fantastic job putting in place all the health and safety requirements which
allow us to re-start safely and protect our talent.”
Simon Crawford Collins (Slim Film + Television) said: “We are over the moon to be recommencing
filming on Around The World In 80 Days, having gathered such an exciting and truly
international cast, led by David, Ibrahim and Leonie. This project is such a challenging and
ambitious series to put together so it has required a huge amount of support on all fronts to pull it
off. We couldn’t have achieved it without our wonderful production team, our stellar cast, our
super supportive broadcasters and financiers, the inventiveness of our directors and the ingenuity
of our wonderful writing team led by Ashley Pharoah.”
Pascal Breton (Federation) added: “We’re delighted that the combination of a legendary work by
Jules Verne and The Alliance of public broadcasters France Télévisions, ZDF and RAI has
created this year’s most ambitious European series, already sold to the BBC in the UK, Seven in
Australia, MASTERPIECE PBS in the US and in several other territories. We’re
also closing negotiations soon with additional international platforms.”

Susanne Simpson (MASTERPIECE) said: “Who doesn’t love a great adventure story? And with
David Tennant heading a terrific cast, this new series will be a thrill for MASTERPIECE fans.”
The series benefits from the support of the IDC (Industrial Development Corporation) of South
Africa, and from the Creative Europe Program MEDIA.
Federation Entertainment will handle distribution rights to the series.
The production team are working closely with local governments in Romania and South Africa
and are adhering to guidelines regarding filming at this time.

About Slim Film + Television
Slim is a specialist drama production company based in the heart of London and committed to
making the very best dramas for the UK and international market.
Under the guidance of MD Simon Crawford Collins, the company works with some of the most
exciting writers in the UK, and beyond, to produce hugely entertaining, adventurous and
emotional dramas that have simply great characters at their core. Simon was previously joint
Managing Director at Kudos where he produced some of the most era-defining dramas of recent
years including Spooks, Hustle and Ashes to Ashes. Slim aims to continue the tradition of making
platform-defining television that lives long in the audiences’ memory.
Slim’s returning series Mystic for CBBC and TVNZ has just landed to great critical acclaim.
Filming on the second part of the first series has resumed in New Zealand.
Slim recently announced the management buyback of all its shares and is now a completely
independent company.

About Federation Entertainment
Based in Paris, Los Angeles and now Rome, Federation Entertainment has quickly established
itself as a top indie European studio. Its model of development, production, distribution and
marketing is at the service of premium original content specifically designed for the global
marketplace.
Created and launched in 2013 by president Pascal Breton, Federation is co-headed by Lionel
Uzan, CEO, and founders David Michel (head of Cottonwood Media, the Kids company of the
group), Stephane Sperry and Serge Hayat. Thierry Sorel joined the team in 2016 followed by
Benoit Lacombe in 2017 as COO. Ashley Stern heads the LA office.
Federation is now expanding into non-scripted content, teaming up with WeMake. Founded in
June 2017 by Bouchra Réjani (former COO of Shine France), WeMake focuses on the creation
and production of original, unscripted content for all platforms, in all genres.
Patrick Wachsberger (ex co-chairman of Lionsgate Motion Pictures) and Federation have
recently joined forces to create Picture Perfect Federation, a joint venture dedicated to premium
television content for both US and international markets.

Federation’s prestigious portfolio includes The Bureau (40 X 52’, TOP – The Oligarchs
Productions / Federation for CANAL+), Marseille (16 X 52’, a Netflix Original series produced by
Federation); Hostages (22 X 45’, an Israelian thriller coproduced by Yezirah Ivrit and
Federation); Bad Banks (6 X 52’, a German financial thriller coproduced by Letterbox
Filmproduktion and Iris Productions for ZDF and Arte France) ; Undercover (10 X 50’, a thriller
produced by De Mensen for VRT) ; The Twelve (10×52′), a fascinating psychological thriller
produced by Eyeworks, in competition at Canneseries 2019 ; Torn, a romantic 6 X 52’ thriller in
competition at Series Mania 2019… as well as Find Me In Paris (78 X 26′) the premium live
action hit for tweens coproduced by ZDF and Paris Opera dance school, and the animated
series Ollie & Moon (104 X 11′) and Squish (52 X 13′), on the kids side.