Filmed in Budapest, the multi-million euro series is financed by the National Film Institute of Hungary and Beta, and produced by Serendipity Point Films, Twin Media, HG Media, MR Film, and Beta, with Hungary’s TV2 Network and ORF as co-producers.
Austrian pubcaster ORF joins Rise of the Raven, the most epic Central European television production of all time, as co-producer.
Produced by acclaimed Robert Lantos (Sunshine, The Sweet Hereafter, Johnny Mnemonic, Eastern Promises, Crimes of the Future), shooting for the multi-million Euro series is underway near Budapest with more than 600 actors and stunt people in front of the camera.
The series stars Hungarian discovery Gellért L. Kádár as Janos Hunyadi, the army commander who defeated the vast Ottoman troops in the Battle of Belgrade in 1456. He is also for whom the noon bells toll at churches across the world to this day. Opposite Kádár is Hungarian TV, film, and stage star Vivien Rujder as Hunyadi’s life partner Elizabeth Szilagyi.
A stellar international cast joins them, including Austria’s Laurence Rupp (Babarians), Cornelius Obonya (Maria Theresa), Murathan Muslu (Breaking Point), Italy’s Francesco Acquaroli (Fargo, Suburra), multi-awarded Czech actor Karel Roden (Bourne Supremacy, Mr. Bean, The Pleasure Principle), Serbian star Rade Serbedzija (Batman Begins, Mission: Impossible II, Angelina Jolie’s In The Land of Blood and Honey) as well as Italian actors Thomas Trabacchi (Studio Battaglia) and Elena Rusconi (6 Underground).
Directors are Oscar-nominated and Emmy winning Robert Dornhelm (Children of Theatre Street, Vienna Blood, Maria Theresa, War and Peace), and Hungarian directors Orsi Nagypal, (The Deal, CW’s The Outpost) and Attila Szász (Tall Tales, Eternal Winter). The series´ showrunner is Balázs Lengyel (HBO’s Golden Life) and it is written by Lengyel, George Mihalka, Balázs Lovas, Zsófia Ruttkay, Attila Veres, and Bán Mór whose best-selling series of novels the series is based on.
The ten-hour epic series, a panoramic celebration of medieval times, is financed by the National Film Institute of Hungary and Beta. It is produced by Serendipity Point Films, Twin Media, HG Media, MR Film, and Beta. Co-producers are Hungary’s TV2 Network, who will broadcast the in Hungary and Slovenia, and co-producer ORF, who will broadcast in Austria.
Also producing are Tibor Krsko (Fateless, Children of Glory, The Song of Names), Cecilia Hazai, Kinga Hazai, and Ari Lantos (Remember, Barney’s Version), alongside Oliver Auspitz and Andreas Kamm of MR Film (Vienna Blood) and Koby Gal Raday, Beta’s CCO.
Rise of the Raven unveils the adventure-filled life of warrior Janos Hunyadi in grueling 15th century medieval Europe. While Hunyadi’s life is plagued by scandal, political power plays, and conspiracies between noble families from Warsaw, Rome, Belgrade, and Vienna, his strongest allies are the women in his life. There is Elizabeth Szilagyi, his wife, who stands by him and often fights in his place. And there is Mara Brankovic, his first love and life-long friend. Even though she breaks his heart by becoming the lead concubine in Sultan Murad’s court, as well as a close confidante of the Turkish leader, their friendship will never be broken. When the Ottoman Empire mobilizes an army of unprecedented size that marches west with the objective of conquering the Vatican and Europe, Hunyadi scores a decisive victory against all odds at the Battle of Belgrade, re-shaping the history of Europe.
