Love Soup actor Michael Landes is to star in Hooten & the Lady, a new adventure series for Sky1.
To be shot in South Africa and locations across the globe, Hooten & the Lady will see Michael, whose credits also include CSI, Soulmates, Miranda, Adventures of Superman, play the role of adventurer Hooten. He teams up with the British Museum's Lady Alexandra Lindo-Parker to track down fabled treasures from the past, including the lost Amazonian golden city of Z, the Buddha’s missing scroll and the lost tomb of Alexander the Great.
Lady Alexandra is portrayed by Ophelia Lovibond, best known as hardworking PA Izzy in BBC2 mockumentary W1A.
"I've never played such a full-on action role before," said Ophelia. "I'm really looking forward to getting my teeth stuck in. I'm excited at the prospect of working with Michael and it's also great to be working with Sky again. Not to mention filming in South Africa.”
Michael, meanwhile, described his role as 'an opportunity of a lifetime. I'm so excited'.
Of the new eight-part series, executive producer and former EastEnders writer Tony Jordan said: “This is an incredibly ambitious show which I hope will be appointment-to-view television for a discerning drama audience on Sky 1. Seat-of-your-pants adventure is the glue, but Hooten & the Lady is all about these two amazing characters and we are elated to have found Michael and Ophelia to bring our stories to life.”
The high-octane, feature-length family adventure begins filming next month in Rome, with scenes in and around the Vatican City, before production moves to Cape Town in South Africa.
Hooten & the Lady is scheduled to appear on Sky1 next summer.
