Rutger Hauer joins cast of big budget miniseries The Flight of the Storks

Dutch actor Rutger Hauer has signed to star in French director Jan Kounen’s upcoming big-budget miniseries based on Jean-Christophe Grangé’s novel The Flight of the Storks, TF1 International has announced.

Other members of the cast will include upcoming British actor Harry Treadaway (Cockneys Vs Zombies, Cheerful Weather for the Wedding and Control), Perdita Weeks (The Tudors, The Promise) and Clemens Schick (Largo Winch II).

The €10m mini-series is being produced by EuropaCorp for Canal Plus which will first broadcast the programme in France. TF1 International, which is handling international sales, is selling the series in 2x90’ and 4x45’ formats at MIPCOM this week.

The English-language production is due to start shooting this month, stopping off in South Africa, the Turkish city of Istanbul and a variety of European locations.  Denis McGrath, whose previous credits include XIII: The Series, co-wrote the script.

Grangé’s first novel The Flight of the Storks came out in 1994 and since been translated into 15 languages. It follows a young academic who stumbles on a trail of gruesome murders while charting the migrations of storks from Switzerland to Africa.

It was the first in a long-line of best-selling thrillers including Crimson Rivers which Grangé adapted to the big screen in 2000 alongside director-actor Mathieu Kassovitz with the backing of producer Alain Goldman and Gaumont.

Grangé hinted in a recent interview that he was in talks for an adaptation of his latest novel The Passenger.

Other series on TF1’s MIPCOM slate include a new project Bullet in the Face, starring British actor Eddie Izzard. TF1 described the series as “an offbeat, high adrenalin comedy about a psychotic criminal turned policeman”. Pillars of the Earth producers IFC are behind the series.

Canadian director Erik Caneul (Bon Cop, Bad Cop and Dead Zone) is set to direct the series, available in 6x22’ or 3x34’ formats. TF1 said it would be “splattered with homage to Tarantino’s Kill Bill and Inglorious Basterds, John Woo’s Face off and Luc Besson’s Nikita”. It is due to be delivered in summer 2012.