Cape Town - Parts of South Africa are set to be transformed into Egypt’s famous Valley of the Kings later this year, when British broadcaster ITV starts shooting a miniseries about the discovery of boy king Tutankhamun’s tomb.
Filming is expected to start soon and continue into early next year.
In a press release ITV Studios said the four-part series would focus on the “legendary personal story” of English Egyptologist Howard Carter, who discovered the tomb in 1922.
The series will be directed by Peter Webber, whose breakthrough feature film was the 2003 drama Girl With a Pearl Earring starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth.
ITV said the cast of the series, with the working title Tutankhamun, would be made public in coming months.
The story is set to kick off roughly two decades before Carter’s famous discovery which captured the world’s attention.
“Set against the great sweep of ochre sands, looming cliffs and baking heat of Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, the story unfolds from 1905 when Carter… is fervently leading an expedition,” the ITV statement said.
“Amidst the chaos scattered across the valley floor, Carter’s grim determination to find lost antiquities is only too apparent.
“When tempers fray Carter is hotheaded and puts the dig and his career in jeopardy.”
The series will track Carter’s fall from grace, after his licence to dig was revoked by Cairo’s Antiquities Service, and his later meeting with the wealthy eccentric Lord Carnarvon.
ITV Studios creative director of drama Francis Hopkinson said the series would show how Carter’s “all-consuming, obsessive search for the tomb” pushed his friendship with his benefactor Carnarvon to the brink.
Carnarvon, in turn, nearly bankrupted himself by pouring his inheritance into the excavation.
Carter and Carnarvon’s sensational discovery and tumultuous relationship dominated the world’s news at the time, with papers eagerly following the twists and turns.
Weekend Argus