Munich, Germany (2009/08/17) - Emmy® and Golden Globe® nominated, Munich-based production and international distribution company, TANDEM Communications along with its Canadian co-producer, Muse Entertainment, and in association with Ridley Scott and Tony Scott’s Scott Free Films, announce that as they reach the midway point in their 110 day shoot, book author, Ken Follett agreed to appear in a one-scene speaking role.

The US$ 40 million budget, 8-hour limited series, based on Ken Follett’s masterpiece of the same name, under the direction of Sergio Mimica-Gezzan (Heroes, Saving Grace, Steven Spielberg’s Into the West) and starring Ian McShane (HBO’s series Deadwood, Sexy Beast), two-time Golden Globe® Award winner Donald Sutherland (ABC’s series Dirty Sexy Money, Human Trafficking), Rufus Sewell (CBS’s series The Eleventh Hour, HBO’s Emmy® winning mini John Adams), Matthew Macfadyen (Ridley Scott’s new feature film Nottingham, Frost and Nixon), Eddie Redmayne (The Other Boleyn Girl, Elizabeth – the Golden Age), Haley Atwell (The Duchess, Brideshead Revisited), Natalia Wörner (Die Sturmflut, Unter anderen Umständen, Miss Texas), Anatole Taubman (James Bond – Quantum of Solace, Taken), Goetz Otto (Der Untergang, James Bond – Tomorrow Never Dies) u.v.a., has been shooting on location in Budapest, Hungary since June and will move to Vienna, Austria in October. In Germany, the ProSieben Sat.1 AG came onboard in the development stage as a co-financier for their network Sat.1, as did ORF in Austria.

Spearheading the project for TANDEM is Executive Producer Rola Bauer. “We’re pleased to be working very closely with Ken Follett on this project,” says Bauer. “He has been extremely supportive and encouraging from the start. As he was planning to come to set recently, we asked him if he would consider actually appearing in his own story. We are thrilled that he agreed.”

“I was very nervous about acting alongside talented professionals,” says Ken Follett, “but afterwards I saw Sergio smiling, so perhaps I was not so bad.”

Ken Follett will become a monthly contributor to The Pillars of the Earth production’s website, which is located at: www.the-pillars-of-the-earth.tv

For further information, please contact Lisa Pierce at Tandem Communications.

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