WandaVision actor Paul Bettany has been cast to portray Italian composer Antonio Salieri in Sky’s upcoming limited series Amadeus. Bettany is set to join previously announced cast member Will Sharpe (The White Lotus), who will play famed composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Bettany will be playing Mozart’s rival in the series that hails from Joe Barton (The Lazarus Project) and Julian Farino (Giri/Haji). Filming for Amadeus is slated to begin in Hungary this spring. In addition to starring, both Sharpe and Barton will serve as the show’s executive producers alongside Farino, Megan Spanjian, Stephen Wright, and Patrick Melrose executive producer Michael Jackson.
The upcoming show, described as a “playfully reimagined limited event series,” is produced by Two Cities Television in association with Sky Studios.
“I can’t wait to work with Julian Farino, Joe Barton, Sky and Will Sharpe who, for my money, is hands down the most exciting actor of his generation,” Bettany said in a statement (via Variety).
What is Amadeus about?
Nothing much has been revealed yet about the upcoming series, apart from Bettany and Sharpe playing longtime rivals. However, according to the show’s description, Amadeus “will expand and interrogate the mythic rivalry of the two composers.”
“Set within the musical hub of bustling Vienna at the end of the 18th century, 25-year-old Amadeus (Sharpe) arrives in the city no longer a child and determined to carve his own path,” the description reads. “Recently unemployed and without the management of his father, Amadeus finds an unlikely ally in a young singer who will become his wife, fiery Constanze Weber Mozart. Her connections help bring him into the orbit of the Italian opera powerhouse and court composer Antonio Salieri (Bettany), setting the three of them on a collision course that will ultimately define their lives and their legacies for years to come.”
