James R | On 25, Jun 2022

Apple TV+ has ordered a drama based on Edith Wharton’s The Buccaneers.

The unfinished final novel by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author was published in 1938, a year after her death, although it was later finished by Marion Mainwaring in 1993, based on Wharton’s outline. Now, the book is heading to the screen, adapted by Katherine Jakeways (Tracey Ullman’s Show, Where This Service Will Terminate).

Girls with money, men with power. New money, old secrets. A group of fun-loving young American girls explode into the tightly corseted London season of the 1870s, kicking off an Anglo-American culture clash as the land of the stiff upper lip is infiltrated by a refreshing disregard for centuries of tradition. Sent to secure husbands and titles, the buccaneers’ hearts are set on much more than that, and saying I do is just the beginning…

The eight-episode series will star Kristine Froseth (The Assistant, Sharp Stick), Alisha Boe (When You Finish Saving The World, 13 Reasons Why), Josie Totah (Saved by the Bell), Aubri Ibrag (Dive Club), Imogen Waterhouse (The Outpost, Nocturnal Animals) and Mia Threapleton (Shadows, I Am Ruth) as the buccaneers. They are: Nan St. George (Froseth), Conchita Closson (Boe), Mabel Elmsworth (Totah), Lizzy Elmsworth (Ibrag), Jinny St. George (Waterhouse) and Honoria Marable (Threapleton).

Produced by The Forge Entertainment, Beth Willis (Doctor Who, Ashes to Ashes, Help), Emmy Award winner George Faber (National Treasure, Generation Kill, Collateral), Jakeways serve as executive producers, alongside Susanna White (Bleak House, Jane Eyre, Generation Kill) who is lead director on the project.

Production is currently underway in Scotland.

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