Dario Argento to Direct Horror Series ‘Longinus’ for Wild Bunch-Owned BIM and Publispei

By Nick Vivarelli

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Italian horror master Dario Argento (“Suspiria”) is set to direct a TV series titled “Longinus” involving mysterious murders, esoteric elements and ancient enigmas.

The show is the 79-year-old cult helmer’s first project since 2012 and is his most ambitious TV project. It is being co-produced by new Italian shingle BIM Production and Publispei, the company founded by the late great Italian TV producer Carlo Bixio and now run by his daughter Verdiana.

The Argento TV series is the first project announced by the new production unit of BIM, which was announced last week and is owned by Wild Bunch. The BIM Production banner is being spearheaded by Riccardo Russo, who was previously in charge of international TV productions at Lux Vide, where he produced the series “Medici: Masters of Florence,” which TV sold to key territories.

A brief statement from BIM and Publispei said that Argento will lead viewers inside his “obscure and terrifying” imagination. “Longinus,” described as an “auteur series for the international market,” will be “suspended between the real and the supernatural” and will be set “between the French Alps of Grenoble and the Siena of the Palio.”

The title of the series appears to reference the name given to the Roman soldier who pierced the side of the crucified Jesus with a lance to make sure that Jesus was dead.

Argento, who made a string of cult classics starting in the 1970s, including “The Bird With the Crystal Plumage,” “Suspiria” and “Deep Red,” has more recently helmed several movies that bombed at the box office, such as serial-killer thriller “Giallo,” with Adrien Brody, in 2009, and “Dracula 3D,” starring his daughter, Asia Argento, in 2012.