Filming of World Without End completed

Cynthia Nixon Tandem Communications and Ridley and Tony Scott’s Scott Free Productions have completed filming for the $45 million eight-hour miniseries of World Without End. Post-production has begun, and the series is expected to air in the last quarter of 2012.

Principal cast members include Cynthia Nixon (pictured, as Petranilla), Miranda Richardson (as Mother Cecilia) Ben Chaplin (as Sir Thomas Langley), Peter Firth (as Earl Roland), Charlotte Riley (as Caris) and Tom Weston-Jones (as Merthin) lead the cast.

Also cast are Rupert Evans as Godwyn, Nora von Waldstaetten as Gwenda, Oliver Jackson-Cohen as Ralph, Megan Follows as Maud, and Sarah Gadon as Philippa.

Michael Caton-Jones directed from a script by John Pielmeier, who also adapted The Pillars of the Earth.

The series is being produced by Tandem Communications, Take 5 Productions and Galafilms in association with Ridley Scott and Tony Scott´s Scott Free Productions. Tandem and Scott Free produced the eight-hour adaptation of The Pillars of the Earth.

>> More information on the cast and crew of World Without End

>> See the official World Without End series site

Pillars of the Earth is tops in Spain

Three of Ken's novels are among the twenty most-read e-books in Spain, with Los pilares de la tierra (The Pillars of the Earth) the most popular overall. According to a survey undertaken by La Federación de los Gremios de Editores de España (The Federation of Spanish Publishing Guilds) in the first half of the year. Los pilares de la tierra (The Pillars of the Earth) was no 1, La caída de los gigantes (Fall of Giants) was no 3, and Un monde sans fin (World Without End) no 5 on the list of the top 20 e-books. The survey was published in December 2011.

Among print editions, Los pilares de la tierra is also the most widely-read novel in Spain, according to the official Spanish survey of reading habits. La caída de los gigantes was the third-most popular novel in the survey, held for the first half of 2011. Los pilares de la tierra was first published in Spain in 1990.

'Pillars' wins Creative Arts Emmy award

The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has recognized The Pillars of the Earth mini-series with a Creative Arts Emmy award for Outstanding Sound Editing at the 63rd Creative Arts Emmy Awards.

The award went to the sound editing team of Marcel Pothier (Supervising Sound Editor); Christian Rivest (Sound Designer); Antoine Morin (Sound Effects Editor); Dominik Pagacz (Sound Effects Editor); Guy Pelletier (Music and Dialogue Editor); Tom Trafalski (Music Editor), and Guy Francoeur (Foley Artist).

The ceremony was held in Los Angeles on Saturday 10 September 2011.

The series was produced by Tandem Communications and Muse Entertainment in association with Scott Free Films. It was directed by Sergio Mimica-Gezzan, and the script was adapted by Emmy winner John Pielmeier.

>> Ken's comments on the production
>> See the cast list

>> Production image gallery
>> More about the director and crew

'Pillars' wins three Gemini Awards

The Pillars of the Earth mini-series was awarded a grand prize when it was named Best Dramatic Miniseries or Television Movie at the 26th annual Gemini Awards, held in Toronto on 31 August.The eight-hour mini-series was also named as Best Achievement in Make Up, and Best Sound in a Dramatic Series.

The Gemini Awards honour the best in Canadian television as determined by members of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television and other industry professionals.

Fall of Giants a top seller in Europe

Fall of Giants was the third-best-selling novel in Europe in the first quarter of 2011, according to German
book trade analyst Rüdiger Wischenbart. The top six best-sellers, listed on Europeandaily.com on 15 June, are:

Sarah’s Key, by Tatiana De Rosnay
Mercy, by Jussi Adler-Olsen
Fall of Giants
The Girl Who Played with Fire, by Stieg Larsson
The Squirrels of Central Park Are Sad on Mondays, by Katherine Pancol, and
Breaking Dawn, by Stephenie Meyer

Fall of Giants wins Libri award

A Titánok bukása (Fall of Giants) has won the Hungarian Libri Golden Book Award 2010 for the best fiction title published last year. The nationwide competition was held by Libri, one of the biggest book distributors and wholesalers in Hungary. Readers could vote on the Libri website for their favourite books in several categories.

Fall of Giants best foreign novel of the year

La caída de los gigantes (Fall of Giants), translated by Ana Alcaína Pérez and published by Plaza & Janés, has been chosen as the best novel in translation in Spain, by the readers of Qué Leer. Qué Leer is a popular Spanish monthly book magazine aimed at the general reader as well as the trade, which reviews and describes all sorts of books from the most popular to the most literary.

> www.que-leer.com

Ken elected a Fellow of the Welsh Academy

Ken was elected as a Fellow of the Welsh Academy (Yr Academi Gymreig), at the Academy's 50th anniversary dinner, on 24 February 2011, along with novelist Philip Pullman, poet Philip Gross and Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Welsh Academy Fellowship is only offered to those writers with a meaningful connection to Wales who have achieved particular prominence, or, over an extended period, have made an exceptional contribution to literature.

Pillars' board game wins top prize

Der Tore der Welt The board game based on World Without End has won the Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) award in Germany, one of the most prestigious prizes awarded in that country.

The board game version of Die Tore der Welt was designed by Michael Rieneck and Stefan Stadler, and published by Kosmos.

In 2007 the board game based on Die Säulen der Erde (The Pillars of the Earth), also designed by Michael Rieneck and Stefan Stadler, was awarded the Deutscher Spielepreis.

>> Earlier news