RealScreen.com – 15th January, 2015

by Kevin Ritchie

Discovery Networks UK & Ireland has ordered the series ‘Richard E. Grant’s 7 Deadly Sins’ from indie producer Back2Back.

The 7 x 60-minute series, which will also air in 3D on broadcaster Sky 3D, looks at the origins of Christianity’s seven deadly sins using a mix of natural-history storytelling and theater.

The British actor, who recently appeared on ‘Girls’ and ‘Downton Abbey’, will battle against a fictional alter ego who takes the form of a different sin (envy, lust, wrath, sloth, greed, pride and gluttony) in each episode.

The series will draw upon classic literature to give the human perspective on sinning and then illustrate similar behavior patterns in nature using wildlife footage of “envious lions” and “wrathful hippopotamuses,” for example. Scientific experts will also explain how that behavior is a survival mechanism.

Producers collaborated with screenwriters from Morgan Freeman’s Revelations Entertainment to blend wildlife and art-house storytelling approaches “to present a unique look at the unnerving similarities between man and beast,” the network said in a statement.

Tom Gorham is exec producing for Discovery alongside Back2Back’s David Notman-Watt and Benedetta Pinelli. ‘Richard E. Grant’s 7 Deadly Sins’ will air on Discovery Channel UK & Ireland and on Sky 3D in the UK before airing across Latin America. Sky Vision is the show’s global distributor.

The project is not related to Morgan Spurlock’s 7 Deadly Sins series, which aired in the U.S. last summer on Showtime.