After languishing in movie development limbo for years, A Killing On Carnival Row – its title trimmed to just the last two words for its TV incarnation – is finding much more luck on the small screen. Amazon is producing an eight-episode run based on Travis Beacham's script, and Cara Delevingne is the latest name aboard.
Orlando Bloom nabbed one of the other lead roles earlier this week on the series, which writer/producer René Echevarria is overseeing alongside Beacham, with longtime champion Guillermo del Toro as executive producer. Carnival Row spins a fantasy noir story set in a neo-Victorian city called the Burgue. It's become something of a refuge for mythical creatures on the run from their war-torn homeland, but now the streets are fraught with terror as a killer is stalking nonhumans.
Bloom will play Rycroft Philostrate a police inspector investigating the latest slaying, of a faerie showgirl. While he's not supposed to get personally involved, he digs deeper into the case than might be sensible. Delevingne will play Vignette Stonemoss, a faerish refugee who flees her war-torn homeland to come to the Burgue, where she must contend not only with rampant human prejudice against her kind, but with the secrets that have followed her to this new land.
With Paul McGuigan on hand to direct, the series will start filming this autumn, heading for a 2019 launch date.