John Turturro and Rupert Everett to star in Umberto Eco’s medieval murder mystery

TV series will be based on 'The Name of the Rose," Eco's international best-seller set in a 14th century monastery.

A TV adaption of Italian author Umberto Eco’s 1980 blockbuster medieval murder mystery The Name of the Rose is in the works, starring John Turturro (of HBO’s The Night of) and Rupert Everett, according to a report in Variety.

Turturro will play William of Baskerville, a 14th-century Franciscan friar tasked with investigating a series of suspicious deaths at a Benedictine Abbey. Everett has been cast as the main antagonist, Inquisitor Bernard Gui, in the 8-episode series which will begin production in January in Rome.

Sean Connery and Christian Slater starred in the 1986 adaption of Eco’s bestseller, which was a critical and box office flop in the United States, but did well in Europe where it earned a cult following.

Rai Fiction, the Italian production company behind the series, is betting that U.S. audiences are hungry for more Italian fare after the success of the company’s hit thriller, Medici: Masters of Florence.