Lost star Michael Emerson will star in the Italian TV adaptation of Umberto Eco’s crime novel The Name of the Rose. Emerson, who is currently starring in the CW’s superhero series Arrow and Amazon’s Mozart In The Jungle, will play The Abbot, an ambiguous, greedy, oversensitive and irritable prince of the Abbey, alongside My Best Friend’s Wedding star Rupert Everett and The Night Of’s John Turturro’s in the eight-part drama, which was commissioned by Italian broadcaster Rai. The €26m ($30 million) series is produced by Germany’s Tele Munchen Group, Italian production company Palomar, the firm behind Young Montalbano and 11 Marzo. Turturro will star as William of Baskerville with Everett playing Gui. The series is written by Andrea Porporati (La Piovra), Nigel Williams (The Sea Wolf) and Giacomo Battiato (Karol: A Man Who Becomes Pope), with Battiato directing and Luther and Penny Dreadful’s John Conroy as director of photography. Principal photography started last month in the Cinecitta Studios in Rome and on location around Lazio and Abruzzo. It is expected to air in the first quarter of 2019.

Rock doc The Go-Betweens: Right Here is heading to Berlin after UK based Moviehouse Entertainment signed up to handle international sales for the film, which is produced by Australian producer Essential Media and Entertainment. Produced by Joe Weatherstone (Killing Ground) and executive produced by Essential Media’s Chris Hilton and David Alrich, the movie looks at the rise and fall of one of the most successful and influential Australian bands of the last 40 years. Directed by Red Dog director Kriv Stenders, who also directed a number of Go Between music videos, it features candid interviews with band members including Robert Forster, Lindy Morrison, Robert Vickers, Amanda Brown and John Wilsteed, collaborators and contemporaries of the band, intertwined with rare archival photographs, film and music recordings. Moviehouse Entertainment’s Managing Director Mark Vennis said: “We saw The Go-Betweens: Right Here at the Melbourne International Film Festival and were completely blown away by this brilliant piece of documentary film making. The Go-Betweens’ story is every bit as engaging and riveting as the Band’s own music and in our view, a story any real music fan will love. It fits right in with many of our other music related documentaries including the current Here To Be Heard: The Story of the Slits.”

Amazon is stepping up its original programming push in India with the commission of a major new dating format. The SVOD service has launched Skulls and Roses from Indian production company Monozygotic. The series will see a raft of participants head to Skull Island to couple up before being tested as to whether they have the instinct to love or prefer self-preservation. It is hosted by Raghu Ram and Rajiv Lakshman. “After announcing our foray into reality shows with comedy and music, we’ve seen great enthusiasm from Amazon Prime members. We’re excited to add even more variety to our offering and in collaboration with Monozygotic, bring a bold new concept to the unscripted content space that will continue to reinvent the way costumers consume content in India,” said Amazon Prime Video India’s Director of Content Vijay Subramaniam.