Bradley James (Merlin, Damien) will star in the lead role of Netflix’s four-part animated WWII drama series The Liberator, Deadline has confirmed. The series is based on the book The Liberator: One World War II Soldier’s 500-Day Odyssey by Alex Kershaw.
Directed by Grzegorz Jonkajtys, The Liberator tells the riveting true story of the bloodiest and most dramatic march to victory of the Second World War: the battlefield odyssey of maverick U.S. Army officer Felix Sparks (James) and his infantry unit as they fought for over 500 days to liberate Europe.
The animated series will follow Sparks and the 157th Infantry Regiment from Oklahoma, a National Guard unit composed primarily of cowboys, Native Americans, and Mexican-Americans from the invasion of Italy to the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp.
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The character of Sparks is described as a cowboy from Arizona who is serving as the leader of the 157th Field Infantry Regiment E Company, a disparate group of westerners who went on to become of the most decorated combat units of WWII. Sparks was a man of strength, compassion, and conscience, as well as stubborn and defiant to superiors who put themselves and their careers over their men. Over the course of over 500 days of combat, where Sparks went from Second Lieutenant to Lt. Colonel and the men under his command grew to over 10,000, he continued to lead from the front, sharing their sacrifices and challenges.
The creator of the show, Jeb Stuart (Die Hard, The Fugitive), will serve as writer and executive producer for Real Folk Productions. It will be the first-ever animated series produced using Trioscope Enhanced Hybrid Animation, a new patent-pending technology that mixes state-of-the-art CGI with live-action performances, which will bring an unprecedented level of emotion and fidelity to the animated drama experience. VFX artist Grzegorz Jonkajtys developed the Trioscope technology together with School of Humans’ L.C. Crowley.
A+E Studios is producing the miniseries for Netflix, along with Unique Features in partnership with Atlanta-based animation studio School of Humans. The Unique Features executive producers are Bob Shaye, Michael Lynne (The Lord of the Rings) and Sarah Victor. The School of Humans executive producers consists of L.C. Crowley, Grzegorz Jonkajtys, Brandon Barr, and Mark Apen.
(Photo Credit: Getty Images)
