EXCLUSIVE: The cameras are turning on Ancient Rome’s Sky’s Domina series, marking the station’s biggest production to date.
The actors and the team are back at Cinecitta’s historic studios in the Italian capital, Rome, after several weeks of pre-production paintings after the blockade of the country was eased. The exhibition is directed by Kasia Smutniak (Dolittle), Liam Cunningham (Game Of Thrones) and Isabella Rossellini (Blue Velvet).
The production uses a variety of virus generation measures, adding distance on set, making sure everyone receives protection education before the site and creating groups of actors and committed teams, with closed sets when possible. Sky Studios CEO Gary Davey recently said the company is also working with manufacturers to create a virus-related emergency in the event of new lockouts.
As Deadline reported last month, Sky is about to return in a number of high-priced programs. The Sky Original Ich Und Die Anderen (Me And The Others) has already resumed in Austria in June, and primary productions Britannia, A Discovery Of Witches, Temple, Breeders and Code 404 are expected to return in the coming weeks.
Domina is a co-production of Sky Original between Fifty Fathoms (Fortitude) and Sky Studios, with Cattleya as producer.
The screen recounts the struggles of strength of ancient Rome from a rare female perspective. Matthew McNulty (Misfits), Christine Bottomley (The End of the World), Colette Tchantcho (The Witcher), Ben Batt (Captain America: The First Avenger), Enzo Cilenti (Free Fire) and Claire Forlani (Meet Joe Black).
Production is expected to end in the coming months and the series is expected to launch next year.
“Domina is a flagship series for Sky Italia and Sky Studios, so we’re excited to have restarted production at CinecittTM this week,” said Nils Hartmann, original production director of Sky Italia. “Across Europe, Sky Studios has been back in production for two months. During this time, we learned valuable classes from our other productions to make sure we returned to the opposite stage to COVID. These learnings come with a social distance together and the pooling of actors and equipment in designated areas.
“We are delighted to be back at Cinecitt with our brilliant and committed cast and crew,” added Faye Dorn, executive producer of Fifty Fathoms. “It was a normal time and everyone involved showed a lot of skill and determination to make sure we finished the series.”
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