Carnival Row was first announced as a feature film that was set to be directed by Guillermo del Toro. After thirteen years of making its way through development hell, the concept has been turned into a series that will soon be premiering on Amazon. Unfortunately, scheduling issues forced del Toro to leave the project when it finally went into production.
Directed by Paul McGuigan and Jon Amiel, Carnival Row consists of eight episodes and is set in
a noir, Victorian-tinged city called the Burgue, where humans, fairies and other creatures co-exist. A detective investigates a serial killer who is preying on mystical creatures, only to find that he has become the prime suspect in the murders.
The cast includes Orlando Bloom as a police inspector who investigates the murder of a faerie showgirl, Cara Delevingne as a fairish refugee, David Gyasi as a mysteriously wealthy faun, Karla Crome as a quick-witted faerie love poet, Indira Varma as the matriarch of the family that rules the Burgue, Tamzin Merchant as a member of an artistocratic family, Andrew Gower as a man who's concerned his sister is falling in love with a Puck, and Jamie Harris as a police officer who resents the growing influx of foreign fairies and pix.
Carnival Row is making its debut on Amazon on August 30th, and in anticipation of that date a teaser for the show has been released online. There's not much to go on here, but it does give us a look at Bloom and Delevingne's characters.
Travis Beacham, who wrote the original feature screenplay, is executive producer on the series alongside showrunner Rene Echevarria. Bloom serves as producer on the show.
The basic idea of this one has me intrigued, so I'll be checking it out. It's a shame del Toro couldn't stay on as director, he was a perfect match for this material.