Everett, Turturro in The Name of the Rose TV remake

PARIS — Hollywood stars Rupert Everett and John Turturro are to star in the first television adaptation of The Name of the Rose, its producers said Wednesday. The big-budget eight-part series drawn from Umberto Eco’s classic murder mystery set in the Middle Ages, will be screened next year, said Orange Content, the production end of the French telecommunication giant. American Turturro — best known for The Big Lebowski — will play the Franciscan monk William of Baskerville who witnesses a series of macabre murders at a remote monastery in the Italian Alps. British-born Everett, of My Best Friend’s Wedding fame, will play his old enemy, an inquisitor sent from Rome to track the Pope’s critics, who has Baskerville in his sights. The €26-million ($32-million) coproduction is being shot by the Italian team behind the Young Montalbano series. French director Jean-Jacques Annaud made a film version of the book starring Christian Slater and Sean Connery in 1986. — AFP