New Leopard Films-Produced Special for Sky Arts

LONDON: Sky Arts is set to broadcast live from the National Gallery’s opening of its landmark exhibition Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan, with the Argonon Group’s Leopard Films producing the program.

Leopard Films’ head of arts and performance, Fiona Morris, is on board as executive producer for Leonardo Live. The 80-minute broadcast will be live, November 8 at 7 p.m., on Sky Arts as well as 40 cinemas across the U.K. Presenters Mariella Frostrup and Tim Marlow will be joined by special guests such as Fiona Shaw, the creative director of the Royal Opera House; the musician Nitin Sawhney; and the photographer Eamonn McCabe. The program will feature in-depth analysis of the key exhibits, which houses the greatest collection of da Vinci’s works ever amassed. It will be filmed by Seventh Art and brought to cinemas nationally by Picturehouse Entertainment, the distribution arm of City Screen Limited.

James Hunt, the channel director of Sky Arts, said, “We’re delighted that Sky Arts is pioneering a world first with this innovative broadcast, which features such a celebrated cast of contributors. This landmark exhibition, which will be one of the most popular in the National Gallery’s history, is a hugely exciting collaboration for the channel, furthering Sky Arts’ aims to bring the arts to new audiences in innovative ways.”

Todd Austin, the chief creative officer at Leopard Films, added “Following the success of Swan Lake in 3D, we are delighted to be working with Sky Arts once again on this hugely topical event. Leonardo Live is a ground-breaking project which further demonstrates Argonon’s ambition to deliver innovative content across all genres.”