Showtime says, "Look at the great big actor on the stage," adds British thespians to yell the loudest on new series
Probably because it thinks it’s so smart and fancy with that show about the English king who kills everything he has sex with, Showtime is suddenly getting all classy and shit, adding two esteemed British thespians to its lineup of new series in development. The Borgias—described as a “Renaissance-era crime drama”—will star Derek Jacobi as Cardinal Orsini, an antagonist to Jeremy Irons’ sinister pope and patriarch of a powerful, morally corrupt Italian family. (So… The Sopranos in cassocks?) Jacobi, an old-guard Shakespearean actor who fraternized with Olivier, O’Toole, and Burton (and was reportedly an unrequited crush of Ian McKellen’s), is probably best known stateside for roles in films such as Gladiator and Gosford Park.