Sean Bean to Star in ‘The Frankenstein Chronicles’ at ITV

Sean Bean Stars in The Frankenstein Chronicles
Sean Bean (Photo by Richard Chavez / Showbiz Junkies)

The Frankenstein myth’s coming to life on ITV with Sean Bean as Inspector John Marlott. The Frankenstein Chronicles will be produced by Rainmark Films and was created by writer/director Benjamin Ross and writer Barry Langford.

The six-part crime drama will be set in London in 1827. Filming will take place in Northern Ireland in early 2015.

The Frankenstein Chronicles is an epic re-working of one of literature and cinema’s most iconic stories,” said ITV’s Director of Drama, Steve November. “We’re delighted to be working with Benjamin Ross, Barry Langford, and the team at Rainmark Films with the vision to bring Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein back to life.”

“Marlott’s investigation takes him into the dark corners of Regency London,” added Ross. “He discovers an underworld of prostitution, drug smuggling, body snatching, and murder for profit. The rational evidence points first one way and then another as he contemplates a frightening alternate scenario.”

The Plot [Courtesy of ITV]:

In the drama’s opening sequences, the Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel, following a successful operation by Thames River Police to apprehend a gang of opium smugglers, recruits Marlott.

As he stands on the water’s edge contemplating the arrest of the smugglers, Marlott makes a shocking discovery. The body of a dead child is washed up on the shore and on further examination of the corpse he is horrified to discover it’s not actually a child but rather a crude assembly of body parts arranged in a grotesque parody of a human form. The mutilated child-like body leaves an indelible impression on Marlott and he finds himself unable to shake off the memory of what has happened that fateful night.

With a formidable reputation as an investigator, he is known as a man who “doesn’t know the meaning of fear,” so it comes as no surprise when coldly efficient Peel, summons him insisting the “details of your investigation must remain confidential.” And after what he’s witnessed Marlott accepts the challenge to track the perpetrator of this heinous crime.

We follow him as he pursues the crazed killer behind the mutilated body. As he investigates, Marlott discovers that what he’s dealing with is more horrific than he could possibly have imagined.