Amazon picks up Absentia for the UK, starring Stana Katic and Crazyhead’s Cara Theobold

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Amazon has picked up Absentia, a new crime thriller starring Castle‘s Stana Katic and Crazyhead‘s Cara Theobold, for distribution in the UK (as well as other territories).

“Absentia is an exciting new thriller which combines family and love with suspense and vindication,” said Brad Beale, VP of worldwide TV content acquisition at Amazon Prime Video. “Prime members worldwide are going to love this well written show with remarkable performances by a terrific ensemble cast led by Stana Katic in her newest lead role.”

The show is set to premiere on the streaming platform early next year, reports Deadline.

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19/06/2017: The new, multi-national series Absentia, starring Stana Katic (Castle) and Cara Theobold (Crazyhead), received a red carpet premiere at the Festival de Télévision de Monte-Carlo this weekend. Here’s what we know…

After the drawn-out demise of Castle, the eagerly awaited Absentia will see Stana Katic return in a new 10-episode FBI-psycho-thriller created by an international team. She will star in the show alongside Crazyhead‘s Cara Theobold, and a cast including Patrick Heusinger (Jack Reacher, Quantum Break), Bruno Bichir (Narcos) and Ralph Ineson (Prey, Sherlock). 

Filmed in Bulgaria, which stands in for Boston, the show – created by Sony Pictures Television, in its first such venture – will showcase Katic as an FBI agent who, after being declared dead in absentia turns up in a cabin five years after going missing. With no memory of the events that have transpired in that time, she has to reacclimatise to the very different world she is returning to, and answer questions about her involvement in a series of murders.

The show received a red-carpet premiere at this weekend’s Festival de Télévision de Monte-Carlo, with the cast turning out en masse to plug the international nature of the show.

They look like they were having a great time.

— Absentia (@AbsentiaSeries) June 16, 2017

The show, described by The Hollywood Reporter as “part thriller and part procedural with a touch of Nordic noir” is being made by Israeli company Masha TV, which created the original version of Homeland, upon which the hit US show was based.

And on the red carpet, stars Theobold and Neil Jackson were keen to talk about just how international the whole affair was. The video below includes chat with all the major players, but will kick off with their interview at around the 2m30s mark.

And here’s Stana Katic talking about the show the day after the premiere.

There is currently no US or UK premiere date for Absentia, nor indeed any word on what networks it will show on. It is, however, expected to air on Sony’s AXN channels in other territories. It’s pretty certain it will find a home soon, and we’ll let you know more as soon as we can.

Update: it would appear that, for some of the cast at least, it was a very good weekend indeed.