Glow & Darkness featuring Joan Collins, Jane Seymour and Denise Richards

[Alexis]

I wasn't really sure where to put this thread but I guess it can be moved later if it's in the wrong place. Joan Collins, Jane Seymour and Denise Richards head up the cast of new epic period saga. I don't know much about the show but it seems it's being produced by a famous Spanish director and filmed all over the world including Spain, Morocco and Egypt. It's supposedly based around the life of Francis of Assisi and features historical characters like, Richard the Lionheart, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Saladin, Philip Augustus among others. It seems very like Game of Thrones in style though I am not sure about budget. There's a lot of CGI from what I can tell, a big sweeping score apparently and a very large cast that some sources have said also features Mira Sorvino. It's also apparently to go for at least three seasons. The show has been filming even through the Corona virus pandemic.

I haven't seem any proper clips or trailers and I am thinking that it will be more like Game of Thrones on a Xena Warrior Princess budget. That doesn't really bother me though. It may be mildly entertaining, like in a period mini-series from the 1980s kind of way. Has anyone else heard anything else about this show?
Here's the blurb from IMDb...

In the midst of the struggle between kings, emperors, sultans and popes, "Glow and Darkness" tells, as never before, the intertwined stories of characters such as Saladin, Emperor Barbarossa, Richard the Lionheart, Philip Augustus, Francis of Assisi and Eleanor of Aquitaine, among others. It is the time of the burghs, the fairs, the Provencal literature and the crusades. Everyone who lived at that time achieved fame and honor.

A strange promo clip that doesn't feature any dialogue...

And a stranger awkward press conference about the show where only Jane Seymour seems to know a bit of Spanish, and Joan tells everyone she hasn't worked in Spain since the 1950s when she did a couple of movies there. Even though recently she guest starred on a couple of seasons of British show Benidorm which films in Spain!

 

[Brian Kinney]

A costume drama with Denise Richards who is know for massive plastic surgery? How desperate is the casting if they hire Richards who is now in a Housewife-Reality-TV format? This is a very bad omen. If you google for Glow & Darkness most entries in German link to gossip sites and mention that Jane Seymour was allegedly unhappy that another actress appears as a younger version of her character... is that outside of Germany a story too?

Also featuring in the cast are some other people I recognized: veteran Bruce Davison , Callum Kerr (the hot policeman George Kiss [!] in Hollyoaks), super sexy Myles Clohessy (who was quite good in guest roles for Quantico and Instinct) and Eduardo Noriega (known for Alejandro Amenábar movies and The Last Stand). At least three actors to lust for... but this isn't unusual for Spanish productions.

 

[Alexis]

If you google for Glow & Darkness most entries in German link to gossip sites and mention that Jane Seymour was allegedly unhappy that another actress appears as a younger version of her character... is that outside of Germany a story too?

Even worse, I saw one interview where Jane and the director say that Jane plays a 25 year old version of her character in flashbacks. Then again Joan Collins was in her 50s when she played a 25 year old in SINS.

I think the most worrying thing about this project is that it is an original story/script. I mean it's based on actual historical characters but it's not drawn from a book, like say Game of Thrones was. Unless it was plotted well it could just go off all over the place with nothing to ground it. Though maybe I am being extremely hopeful thinking that, maybe it is actually just utter trash. It also doesn't have a distribution deal, which I find bizarre for an expensive international production.

 

[Brian Kinney]

To me the casting is the most suspicious. The scenes in the clip don't look that cheap but neither like a BBC period drama/ adaptation (without hearing any dialogue my first thought was something like Richard Lester's Musketeers films). However the guys are really gorgeous - the casting is somehow gay (Joan Collins?!) let's be honest (Richard the Lionheart is also played by a very handsome actor, Steve Byers). If you mean mini-series 1980's style you think probably of North and South (Patrick Swayze and Lesley-Anne Down) and I would mind if it's too trivialized.

One of the writer/director team, José Luis Moreno, did a series about QE1 and Mary Stuart, Queens which has an average rating of 5.1 at IMDb and also featured a mixed cast of British and Spanish actors. I hope we have some Spanish users here who are a bit familiar with his work and could tell us more.

The other writer/creator has no other credits, unusual - since the series seems to consist of 44 (!) episodes in four seasons (starting 2021). But there is a Alejandro Guillermo Roemmers who is an author from Argentina. So maybe he is the G.R.R. Martin of their production? His most famous book is The Return of the Young Prince (2008).

 

[DallasFanForever]

From watching the promo clip I’m not too excited for this. Not sure what to make of it really. If there was some dialogue I think it might help

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

I may have picked this up wrong but I got the feeling looking at that promo clip that they've only shot a pilot / proof of concept so far and presented it in order to try and secure more funding / a distributor for a potential full series. Also, I had the exact same reaction as @Brian Kinney when I saw that Denise Richards was cast in a period drama

 

[Alexis]

I may have picked this up wrong but I got the feeling looking at that promo clip that they've only shot a pilot / proof of concept so far and presented it in order to try and secure more funding / a distributor for a potential full series. Also, I had the exact same reaction as @Brian Kinney when I saw that Denise Richards was cast in a period drama

On IMDb it has different amounts of episodes listed for each cast member's name though and in interviews the actors seem like they are talking about more than just a pilot. And it was filming from early in the year, even before the pandemic began. I honestly think they have filmed a season, which is also worrying, as there seems to be between 35 and 40 episodes listed for each actors name. It looks like it's maybe being filmed quite quickly. Like a daytime soap kind of schedule, and similar production values. The costumes don't seem even nearly accurate either and there are some very dodgy wigs on display.

I can't imagine Joan Collins signing on to do a show pilot on a show that has no network or distribution. And agree to that press conference for just a pilot.

 

[Alexis]

There are scenes with Jane Seymore with thing white hair like in the clip above and others where she has red hair. I guess the scenes with the red hair are supposed to be the flashback scenes.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

On IMDb it has different amounts of episodes listed for each cast member's name though and in interviews the actors seem like they are talking about more than just a pilot. And it was filming from early in the year, even before the pandemic began. I honestly think they have filmed a season, which is also worrying, as there seems to be between 35 and 40 episodes listed for each actors name. It looks like it's maybe being filmed quite quickly. Like a daytime soap kind of schedule, and similar production values. The costumes don't seem even nearly accurate either and there are some very dodgy wigs on display.

I can't imagine Joan Collins signing on to do a show pilot on a show that has no network or distribution. And agree to that press conference for just a pilot.

Yes. I had only seen snippets about it but reading a bit more into it, I see they've filmed the first season. but did so without having a distributor secured. This may have changed in the meantime (the no distributor report is from January)

Notably, the series does not yet have distribution, which according to Moreno is by design. “We hope distributors see our work and, if they value it, will start speaking with us,” he explained.

Jane Seymour, Denise Richards Headline Medieval Series ‘Glow and Darkness’

MADRID — Jose Luis Moreno, a Spanish TV institution whose “Escenas de Matrimonio,” comic sketches of marital life, were adapted in France by M6 as “Escènes de menage,” which proved a French T…

variety.com

On the face of it, the presence of Joan Collins will be enough for me to give it a look but as you said, the production values seem a bit daytime / syndicated series from the 90's so I won't be expecting great things from it.

 

[Alexis]

Oh dear.... These costumes are AWFUL! Joan is wearing her own necklace in this picture. I have seen her wear it at events.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Oh dear.... These costumes are AWFUL!

Not to mention the curtains.

I guess the scenes with the red hair are supposed to be the flashback scenes.

I hope they'll use the deleted coronation scene from Dynasty for Joan's flashbacks! Btw, it looks like the real Steven Carrington has turned up, maybe there's a maharaja from Singapore who can fix him.

 

[Alexis]

Not to mention the curtains.

The ones Joan's wearing or the ones she's stood in front of?

 

[Willie Oleson]

The ones Joan's wearing or the ones she's stood in front of?

Or the net curtain on her head?
And the other picture is beige on beige! Who's doing the photography??? I certainly hope these are not the title cards.

When I look at DR all I see is her mouth, it's even more bizarre than Morgan Fairchild in North & South (which, for the most part, was actually a very good mini-series).

 

[Alexis]

Or the net curtain on her head?
And the other picture is beige on beige! Who's doing the photography??? I certainly hope these are not the title cards.

When I look at DR all I see is her mouth, it's even more bizarre than Morgan Fairchild in North & South (which, for the most part, was actually a very good mini-series).

Joan has a full beat face! Smoked eyes and dramatic ruby lip with a cascade of caramel curls.... In 13th century France!

 

[Alexis]

This appears to be from the set?