Escapade Media Lines Up Third StoryFirst Title

Escapade Media has reached a new agreement with StoryFirst for a third series, the fantasy adventure Dancing Daggers.

Written and created by the Burgos Brothers, the series begins with a young woman found dead in a seedy motel, with heavy snowfall blocking all the exits. A world-weary detective, who also happens to be a powerful wizard, and his idealistic partner come in to investigate and find that the victim is an elven princess and the hotel is a tavern on the border of two long-warring kingdoms.

With elven guards out for blood, a king held hostage and a range of bizarre suspects from the vampire innkeeper to the vegan ogre, the pressure is on for the wizard and his apprentice to solve the murder and avert a renewed war. The investigation will be more challenging than anything they have undertaken before, as nobody can be trusted, nothing can be taken for granted and nothing is as it seems.

Dancing Daggers is directed by Adam Kane (American Gods, Star Trek: Discovery, Hannibal) and showrun by Kim Newton (Big Shot, Gotham, Blacklist). It is executive produced by Kane; Court Five’s Mark Ordesky (The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Quest) and Jane Fleming (The Quest, The Frozen Ground); and Chukwudi Iwuji (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, Peacemaker, The Split). It reunites Ordesky with New Zealand’s Oscar-winning Wētā Workshop, which will provide the world-building for the new series.

The series stars Iwuji as King Arryn and Vinnie Jones as Og the Ogre.

“This title could not have a higher pedigree of creative talent behind it,” said Natalie Lawley, managing director of Escapade. “It’s incredible to be working with this team. The Burgos Brothers have created a series that merges the ongoing successful murder-mystery genre with the fantasy world resulting in this smart, fantastical character-driven drama. We can’t wait to discuss this series with our clients.”

StoryFirst’s Peter Gerwe added, “We could not be more excited to be working with this talented team on a new IP with such amazing potential. The sky is the limit with a format that is endlessly returnable and a world that will be built out with some of the strongest talent in the space.”