Posted in: Casting, Disney+, streaming, TV | Tagged: catherine zeta jones, disney, jerry bruckheimer, Lisette Alexis, national treasure

National Treasure: Catherine Zeta-Jones Set for Disney+ TV Series

Published Tue, 08 Feb 2022 08:07:10 -0600

by Tom Chang

Last updated Tue, 08 Feb 2022 08:18:07 -0600

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Perhaps the biggest piece of the puzzle fell into place as Catherine Zeta-Jones is set to star opposite Lisette Alexis in the Disney+ TV adaptation of National Treasure. Produced by ABC Signature, the series comes courtesy of the films' producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Jon Turteltaub, and writers Marianne and Cormac Wibberley, which acts as an expansion of the Nicolas Cage-starred film franchise told from the point of view of younger heroine Jess (Alexis) described as a DREAM-er in search of answers about her family. She embarks on the adventure of a lifetime to uncover the truth about the past and save a lost Pan-American treasure.

National Treasure: Catherine Zeta-Jones Set for Disney+ TV Series — LOS ANGELES – JAN 27: Catherine Zeta-Jones at the 25th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium on January 27, 2019 in Los Angeles, CA (Image: Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com)

The Oscar winner will play Billie, a badass billionaire, black-market antiquities expert, and treasure hunter who lives by her own code. Her own tale is a "rags-to-riches" origin from a penniless orphan to a shred, stylish businesswoman and adventurer. Used to getting what she wants, she'll stop at nothing to also get this Pan-American treasure as it's worth more personally than any fortune and has deeper stakes for her. Zeta-Jones joins series regulars Lyndon Smith, Zuri Reed, Jake Austin Walker, Antonio Cipriano, and Jordan Rodrigues.

'National Treasure' Series With Latina Lead Greenlit At Disney+ — Image from the 2004 film. Source: Disney

National Treasure Details

The National Treasure pilot will be written by the Wibberleys and directed by Mira Nair. Bruckheimer, the Wibberleys, Jonathan Littman, KristieAnne Reed, Nair, and Turteltaub all serve as executive producers alongside writer Rick Muirragui with production set to begin this month in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Zeta-Jones, who won her Academy Award for her performance in Chicago, will appear in the upcoming Addams Family spinoff Wednesday for Netflix. She's also starred in the FOX series Prodigal Son, the FaceBook series Queen America, and Lifetime's Cocaine Godmother. The original 2004 film and its 2007 sequel National Treasure: Book of Secrets went on to gross a combined $788.6 million globally at the box office.