Amazon’s “The Collection” sets cast for post-war Paris fashion drama

PanARMENIAN.Net - Shooting has started and cast been set on The Collection, a period family saga set in the post-war Paris fashion world. Leading the drama are Richard Coyle (Crossbones), Tom Riley (Da Vinci’s Demons, Kill Your Friends), Frances de la Tour (The Lady In The Van, Vicious), and Mamie Gummer (The Good Wife, Ricki And The Flash), Deadline reports.

Lookout Point (Ripper Street, War And Peace) is making the eight-part series that was greenlighted by Amazon in November. This is the first UK original set by Amazon and is created, written and exec produced by Oliver Goldstick (Ugly Betty, Pretty Little Liars). BBC Worldwide co-commissioned with Amazon and will sell internationally.

The story focuses on an illustrious Paris fashion house, emerging from the dark days of the Occupation. It is centered on two very different brothers. Coyle plays Paul Sabine, the couturier with a romantic vision he hopes will resuscitate a beleaguered, post-war Paris. Riley plays his brother Claude, the true but hidden genius behind the Sabine label. Gummer is Paul’s American wife, an expat who has lived in Paris for 10 years. The Sabines’ mother (de la Tour) is a scheming matriarch who will stop at nothing to use her sons to help achieve her own thwarted ambitions. Jenna Thiam (The Returned) is Nina, the working-class daughter of Sabine’s chief seamstress and the unexpected beauty who becomes the iconic face of the label.

The cast will also include Max Deacon (Into the Storm), Irène Jacob (Three Colors: Red), Michael Kitchen (Foyle’s War) and James Cosmo (SS-GB, Game Of Thrones). Sarah Parish, Michelle Gomez, Allan Corduner, Alexandre Brasseur, Bethan-Mary James, Patrick Kennedy, Poppy Corby-Teuch, and Stanley Townsend are also in the ensemble.

Goldstick calls The Collection “an entrepreneurial fable set at a pivotal moment in France’s history when fashion truly became a vehicle for transformation and re-invention. At its heart, it is the story of a volatile family who pay a steep price for their ambition… Post-war Paris was a chaotic era of stark contrasts — hope and romance was in the air, but the shadow of the Occupation and its moral recriminations also haunted the city. In this divisive world, mystery and secrets abound; knowing too much can cost you a lot — even your life.”

The series is a Lookout Point and Artis Pictures Production, co-produced with Federation Entertainment and MFP, with the participation of France Télévision for Amazon Prime and BBC Worldwide.

Exec producers are Anne Thomopoulos (Rome), Kate Croft (Murderland), Pascal Breton (Marseille), Simon Vaughan (War And Peace), Médéric Albouy for France Télévisions and Toma de Matteis for MFP. Dearbhla Walsh (Penny Dreadful) and Dan Zeff (Siblings) are directors. Selwyn Roberts (Parade’s End) is producer.

The Collection will shoot in Wales and France until May with investment from the Pinewood Wales Investment Budget as well as Pinewood.