Sky1 has released a trailer of its upcoming high seas fantasy serial.
Sinbad is an adaptation of an old Arabic tale of Persian origin. It’s a cycle of seven incredible tales, which describe the luck and fortune which brought the titular character from street rat to wealthy and influential man about town in the city of Basra.
The stories have a formula to them. In each tale, Sinbad grows weary with his life on land and sets out to sea with a swarthy crew. By some circumstance he gets marooned in some fantastic place with odd cultures and impossible beasts, where he overcomes some challenge, and finds a way home.
Sky1, with some assistance from BBC Worldwide, has a produced a 12-episode series (season) to begin airing this summer. If successful – how Sky1 measures success, I’m not sure – they may order another season, but there has been no word to that effect as of yet. There is no official synopsis released yet, so all we have to go on for plot is the little bit in that trailer. It looks like the production values are high, however, with lots of great-looking scenery, and plenty of detailed CGI monsters.
The cast is mostly rookies, including star Elliot Knight, but you probably recognized Naveen Andrews, who played Sayid on LOST, as Lord Akbari, the show’s primary antagonist.
No official word about the possibility of the show coming to a US network, but if it doesn’t there will surely be DVDs and streaming availability – eventually.
Sinbad premiers on Sky1 July 2012.
