Starz Entertainment and BBC Worldwide Productions have cast the young Leonardo da Vinci in the Starz series Da Vinci’s Demons. Tom Riley is officially the first cast member announced for the series, which is set to begin production this summer. Starz will air the eight-episode first season in 2013.
Writer/showrunner David S. Goyer had this to say about Riley’s casting: “Given that da Vinci was the model for the ‘Renaissance Man,’ these were incredibly large shoes to fill. Leonardo had to be smart, witty, and incredibly confident – without coming across as arrogant. He also had to be tormented, because, as a true visionary and polymath, he was ostracized for his ideas as much as he was celebrated. Tom came in and was able to effortlessly combine all of those elements. As soon as he finished his audition, we knew we’d found our man.”
Managing Director at Starz Carmi Zlotnik said “Da Vinci is a near mythic figure in history that fascinates people to this day. It is quite an undertaking to bring to life a role that comes with so many preconceived notions. Tom showed us that there are many dimensions to this man yet to be explored, and, at the same time, make him believable, surprising, and unique to a worldwide audience.”
The Plot:
Da Vinci’s Demons is a historical fantasy, following the ‘untold’ story of the world’s greatest genius during his turbulent youth in Renaissance Florence. Brilliant and passionate, the twenty-five-year-old da Vinci is an artist, inventor, swordsman, lover, dreamer and idealist. As a free thinker, with intellect and talents that are almost superhuman, he struggles to live within the confines of his own reality and time. He begins to not only see the future, but invent it.
