Synopsis: A number of horror's most famous creations, including Dr. Frankenstein, Dorian Gray and Dracula, cross paths in Victorian London. What You Need To Know: Horror is big on TV right now, thanks to " The Walking Dead " and " American Horror Story ," and the next big show could be this Showtime project, which has some huge names involved. From the duo behind billion-dollar Bond flick “ Skyfall ,” Sam Mendes and John Logan, and with a pilot directed by “ The Impossible ” and “ The Orphanage ” helmer Juan Antonio Bayona (after Mendes pulled out of directing due to stage commitments), this is a psychosexual horror set in Victorian London that seems to be a boobs and blood-friendly take on something like “ The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen ,” with Dracula, Frankenstein, Jekyll & Hyde, Dorian Gray and other out-of-copyright favorites crossing paths. The cast
toplined<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/eva-green-josh-hartnett-join-sam-mendes-produced-horror-tv-series-penny-dreadful-20130731' title="Link:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/eva-green-josh-hartnett-join-sam-mendes-produced-horror-tv-series-penny-dreadful-20130731"> </a><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/eva-green-josh-hartnett-join-sam-mendes-produced-horror-tv-series-penny-dreadful-20130731' title="Link:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/eva-green-josh-hartnett-join-sam-mendes-produced-horror-tv-series-penny-dreadful-20130731">by</a> Josh Hartnett and Eva Green , with Billie Piper, Rory Kinnear, Harry Treadaway, Timothy Dalton, Helen McCrory and Simon Russell Beale among the supporting players. Why It's Anticipated: The potential is obviously here for this to be a campy mess like " True Blood " or "American Horror Story," but in theory this should be something classier. John Logan has been careful to emphasize the literary roots of his idea here, taking the characters back to their origins, and Bayona and Mendes make for a fairly prestigious pair. There's something innately appealing about watching these characters cross paths, especially when played by actors of this caliber (and uh, Josh Hartnett): the chance to see people like Kinnear, Treadaway, Dalton and McCrory chew the scenery should be near-irresistible. Airdate: Filming of the eight-part series commenced in October—our guess is that Showtime will make this their replacement for " Dexter " in the summer, but it could end up airing much sooner than that.
