David Farnor | On 24, Feb 2024

Joe Barton and Will Sharpe are teaming up for a new TV series based on Peter Shaffer’s stage play, Amadeus.

Barton, who wrote The Lazarus Project, worked with actor Will Sharpe on the phenomenal BBC series Giri/Haji. Now, they’re reuniting – along with Giri/Haji director Julian Ferino – for a new Sky original series that will see Sharpe take on the titular role of one of the greatest musical virtuosos of all time: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Shaffer’s fictionalised biopic was notably adapted by Shaffer himself for the big screen back in 1984, when Miloš Forman directed Tom Hulce as Mozart and F Murray Abraham as rival composer Antonio Salieri. The movie went on to win 8 Oscars.

The Sky series, written by Barton and produced by Two Cities Television, will reimagine the play to expand and interrogate the mythic rivalry, promising a corrupting symphony of jealousy, ambition and genius. Set within the musical hub of bustling Vienna at the end of the 18th century, 25-year-old Amadeus arrives in the city no longer a child and determined to carve his own path. Recently unemployed and without the management of his father, Amadeus finds an unlikely ally in a young singer who will become his wife, fiery Constanze Weber Mozart. Her connections help bring him into the orbit of the court composer Antonio Salieri, setting the three of them on a collision course that will ultimately define their lives and their legacies for years to come.

As with the play, Barton’s arrangement will be fresh, intimate and irreverent, aiming to feel at times in the hands of the characters themselves. It will ask audiences to bear witness to the making and unmaking of a musical genius by those who loved and envied him most.

Paul Gilbert and Megan Spanjian are Executive Producers for Sky Studios. Michael Jackson (Patrick Melrose) and Stephen Wright (Blue Lights) are Executive Producers for Two Cities Television. Julian Farino (Giri/Haji) and Alice Seabright (Chloe, Sex Education) will serve as directors. Barton, Sharpe and Farino also serve as Executive Producers.

Production is expected to begin later this year.

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