The Star Wars actor will lead the adaptation of Amor Towles’ best-selling novel. 

While the jury is still out on a further Obi-Wan Kenobi series, Ewan McGregor’s next television project has been announced.

The actor will play the central role of Count Alexander Rostov in the forthcoming A Gentleman in Moscow. The series is an adaptation of the 2016 best seller by Amor Towles.

Here’s the premise for A Gentleman in Moscow:

“Set in the aftermath of the Russian revolution, Rostov finds himself on the wrong side of history due to his gilded past. Spared immediate execution, he is banished by a Soviet tribunal to an attic room in the opulent Hotel Metropol, threatened with death if he ever sets foot outside again. As the years pass and some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history unfold outside the hotel’s doors, Rostov’s reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery. As he builds a new life within the walls of the hotel, he discovers the true value of friendship, family and love.”

On his casting, McGregor said:

“It’s an amazing, wonderful story and I am very excited to get to play such a fabulous role.”

Popcorn Storm Pictures

Entertainment One, via director/producer Tom Harper’s company Popcorn Storm Pictures (The Aeronauts, War and Peace), are producing the series in association with Paramount Global’s international studio division VIS.

Of the announcement, Tom Harper said:

“The book is a rare and delicious treat and I fell in love with it the moment I picked it up 6 years ago. We are thrilled that Amor entrusted this brilliant team with bringing the Metropol to life and couldn’t be more delighted that Ewan will be playing the Count.”

The showrunner is Ben Vanstone (All Creatures Great and Small) who will also executive produce with Tom Harper (War and Peace), Xavier Marchand (Nautilus) and Amor Towles.

A Gentleman in Moscow films later this year and coming to Showtime in the US, and Paramount+ internationally.