Borgias, Camelot, Austen! More Books and History coming to the Bo*b Tube!

It's been enjoyably enlightening watching the TV revolution occur around me over the past year. I remember when The Tudors weren't a household name. Jonathan Rhys Myers isn't really a name one would think would roll off of your tongue, and yet JRM is now very high-profile. Just last week he was out on the publicity circuit promoting his new movie with John Travolta. So with the last season showing this spring, and you will have your fill of The Tudors and all the not-totally-accurate stories of Henry's six wives, Showtime will then have the story of the Borgia's of the Renaissance period in the works for us history geeks.

Most of us realize that the Borgia's didn't actually poison people.. or commit incest..but they were indeed a sexual bunch and I am sure Showtime is going to profit from that. I predict lots of sex and violence in this show, starring Jeremy Irons as Rodrigo Borgia, the father of Lucretia. The 13-episode season will follow the Borgia crime family in the year of 1492 and is scheduled to air in Spring 2011.

A new Camelot series has also been in the works for Showtime for a year now, who are working in collaboration with BBC but solid dates are still not announced yet. I did find out that it will be filmed in Ireland. It is hoped to be a five season series, and "high-profile actors are in talks."

From poisons and sex to legends of love and gallantry.. to Jane Austen! Masterpiece classic on PBS (click for full schedule) is showing some fantastic shows this season, such as Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Anne Frank.
Sunday, February 7: Emma , part 3 for most markets.
Sunday, February 14: Northanger Abbey
Sunday, February 21: Persuasion
Sunday, April 11: The Diary of Anne Frank

And as mentioned earlier, FOX is also getting into the Books-into-TV biz this week with their telling of M.J. Roses' The Reincarnationist after two years in the works. Their show Past Life (a team solves mysteries using past life regression) premiers with a preview on Feb. 9, and the pilot on February 11. I'll be watching for one of the stars (who looks like another Aussie hottie) Nicholas Bishop.



Speaking of Aussie hotties, Russell Crowe stars in the upcoming big screen thrill: Robin Hood  of thirteenth century England fame, coming May 14, 2010. I just might be able to get my husband to go with me on this one.. battle scenes and all that guy stuff.

"The Robin Hood adventure chronicles the life of an expert archer, previously interested only in self-preservation, from his service in King Richard's army against the French. Upon Richard's death, Robin travels to Nottingham, a town suffering from the corruption of a despotic sheriff and crippling taxation, where he falls for the spirited widow Lady Marion (Oscar winner Cate Blanchett), a woman skeptical of the identity and motivations of this crusader from the forest. Hoping to earn the hand of Maid Marion and salvage the village, Robin assembles a gang whose lethal mercenary skills are matched only by its appetite for life. Together, they begin preying on the indulgent upper class to correct injustices under the sheriff.



With their country weakened from decades of war, embattled from the ineffective rule of the new king and vulnerable to insurgencies from within and threats from afar, Robin and his men heed a call to ever greater adventure. This unlikeliest of heroes and his allies set off to protect their country from slipping into bloody civil war and return glory to England once more."