Telepix cast Grant as Pimpernel

$8.8 million series of films skedded to start shooting in March

By VARIETY STAFF

LONDON -- Richard E. Grant will play the Scarlet Pimpernel in three new telepics to be co-produced by the BBC, London Films, A&E Network and ABC Australia.

The $8.8 million series of films will start shooting in March, first in Prague and then on location in the U.K. They will be based on the original Scarlet Pimpernel novels by Baroness Orczy, to which London Films owns the rights.

Set during the French Revolution, the stories revolve around the adventures of a British aristocrat who uses his foppish image as a cover for his daring attempts to rescue French nobles from the guillotine.

London Films, founded in the 1930s by Alexander Korda, is the U.K.'s oldest film and TV production company. Its credits include the 1934 Leslie Howard film of "The Scarlet Pimpernel" and the 1950 version starring David Niven.

-- Adam Dawtrey