Visual Effects Veteran Roger Kupelian (Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Pirates of the Caribbean Saga), Emmy Nominated Producer William Martens, and multiple international award winning producer Seda Melkoni of Journey Pictures, have teamed up to produce epic documentary-narrative miniseries “East of Byzantium: War Gods & Warrior Saints.”

Inspired by the graphic novel created by Roger Kupelian, forensic and historical research will guide the telling of the epic true story of the tug-of-war between religion and politics, and the first domino of the first world religion falling in the Caucuses, between the Roman and Persian Empires, the Birth of Christianity in the region, and the Armenian Kingdom that became the first to adopt the new faith as its official religion.

Privately financed, production has begun in Armenia as of June 7 with production offices stationed at Tumo where students have been given a learning opportunity with the production by filming time lapse scenes, assisting on production sets as well as participating as background actors. The production portion filmed in Armenia has been managed by Armen Kupelian of Fugitive Studios, a resident of Armenia.

Upon completion the mini-series will be presented to the worldwide networks by early fall 2014. Serj Tankian (Grammy winning lead singer of System of a Down) will compose the score.