Epic ITV drama casts leads!

The White Queen‘s Max Irons and Peaky Blinders Sam Neill are to star in ITV’s new four-part drama, Tutankhamun.

Tutankhamun focuses on the legendary personal story of eminent British archaeologist, Howard Carter (played by Max Irons), who became an iconic figure and an unlikely hero after he discovered the tomb of one of Ancient Egypt’s forgotten pharaohs, the boy-king Tutankhamun.

Sam Neill takes the role of the dashing and eccentric Lord Carnarvon who keeps faith with Carter and continues to back his expeditions when no one else will.

The story begins in 1905 in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, where Carter is fervently leading an expedition. Amidst the chaos tempers fray leading the hot-headed Carter’s license to dig revoked by Cairo’s Antiquities Service. Carter spends years ostracised, dishevelled and living rough and resorting to selling previously discovered archaeological relics to buy food.

A chance meeting with British aristocrat, Lord Carnarvon, brings a change of fortunes when he asks Carter to help him with a series of random excavations. After years of searching for the tomb, Carter and Carnarvon successfully discover the last resting place of the boy-king in 1921 against all odds and at great personal expense

Tutankhamun is produced by ITV Studios, and written by Guy Burt (Jekyll and Hyde, The Bletchley Circle). Peter Webber (Girl with a Pearl Earring, Hannibal Rising) is the director.

Tutankhamun will commence filming in South Africa from mid October 2015.