Around The World In 80 Days - What We Know So Far
"I'm going to circumnavigate the globe in 80 days," declares Phileas Fogg, in the teaser trailer for "Around the World in 80 Days."
The self-explanatory upcoming British series is an adaptation of the 1873 Jules Verne novel of the same name. The story has been adapted into modern sequels, documentaries, musicals, stage productions, radio dramas, video games, web series, and comics. The best-known iterations of the classic tale, though, are two of the film adaptations. The 1956 film, directed by Michael Anderson starred David Niven and Cantinflas in the leading roles, won various prestigious awards, as tracked by IMDb, including an Academy Award for Best Picture. On the other hand, the 2004 remake directed by Frank Coraci and starring Steve Coogan and Jackie Chan was nominated for two Razzie Awards and won two Stinker Awards — including Most Unwelcome Remake (via IMDb).
The latest rendition of "Around the World in 80 Days" will be an eight-episode series from Ashley Pharoah and Caleb Ranson. With a wide range of adaptations already made, how will this one stand out? Here's what we know so far.
When will Around the World in 80 Days be released?
Like many upcoming projects, the "Around the World in 80 Days" schedule was disrupted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, three weeks after they began shooting the series in South Africa, production was put on hold.
"We'll crawl over hot coals to make our shows, but there comes a point where you go: this isn't fair on the teams and their families back home," executive producer Simon Crawford Collins told Deadline that month. "We're trying to pause things in the most effective way so we can launch back into production as soon as the mists clear."
In September 2020, Variety reported that the series was ready to begin filming in Romania in October after a seven-month production delay. "We are over the moon to be re-commencing filming on 'Around the World in 80 Days,'" Collins told the outlet.
The first two episodes of the series will premiere at the Cannes International Series Festival on October 10. A widespread release date isn't available yet, though the trailer teases "coming soon." Deadline speculates that it will "likely" be released "around the holidays," a fair assumption given how highly-anticipated the series is.
Who will star in Around the World in 80 Days?
David Tennant will be leading the international adventure as Phileas Fogg. "Around the World in 80 Days" writer Ashley Pharoah describes the character as a "preposterously upper middle class over-educated Englishman" with a "childlike sense of wonder" (via Deadline). Tennant is best known for his role as the Tenth Doctor on "Doctor Who," and for playing Kilgrave on Marvel's "Jessica Jones, though he has a prolific career spanning film, TV, stage, and radio. "We wanted somebody who could believably do the action adventure, could play the stiff-upper-lip Englishman, but at the same time you never fall out of love with him and you really want to get under the veneer of that and go, 'Wow, this is actually a complex man,'" Collins told Deadline. "David manages that so brilliantly."
Ibrahim Koma and Leonie Benesch will be starring as Fogg's traveling companions Jean Passepartout and Abigail "Fix" Fortescue, respectively. Shivani Ghai will portray Aouda, a princess who joins their travels. Gary Beadle, Lindsay Duncan, Faical Elkihel, Anthony Flanagan, Rizelle Januk, Giovanni Scion, Peter Sullivan, Jason Watkins, Dolly Wells, and Richard Wilson will also star in "Around the World in 80 Days."
What's the plot of Around the World in 80 Days?
The original "Around the World in 80 Days" novel by Jules Verne follows Fogg after he makes a 20,000-pound bet with his Reform Club that he could circumnavigate the world in just 80 days. With half of his fortune hinging on the outcome of this bet, he sets out with his valet Passepartout traveling by various boats, trains, and even an elephant.
Their journey is continually hindered by Detective Fix, a man who mistakenly believes Fogg is an at-large bank robber. He unintentionally joins their trip in an attempt to follow them until he has a warrant to arrest the suspect. Also joining them is Aouda, an Indian princess they rescue from certain death. By the end of the story, she falls in love with Fogg, and the two get married.
Like most of the adaptations, this series seems to have roughly the same plot and characters. However, their modes of transportation this time include carriages, hot air balloons, and camels. "Why can't we catch a train like normal people?" Koma's Passepartout asks in the trailer.
Plus, Detective Fix is no more. Benesch's Abigail Fortescue carries the nickname "Fix," but she's a journalist documenting their travels. Another meddling detective may appear in the story, though the series may introduce new ways of slowing their trip down. Aouda doesn't appear in the trailer as a travel companion, so her storyline may have changed, too.
Though the release date is still unknown, the adventure will begin soon.