The CW have been churning out new upcoming titles like sweets on a factory conveyor belt recently and they don't seem to be slowing down anytime soon with their latest addition being an international action series starring Tom Welling and flavour of the month, Brendan Fraser. The series is called Professionals and has been acquired from Germany's Leonine Studios, who have shot the series in Ireland and South Africa. So far, there has been no US premiere date announced for the show.
The series is a very loose remake of Soldiers of Fortune, which starred Christian Slater, and was first announced back in 2019. It stars Tom Welling as Vincent Corbo, a security operative with the job of protecting the interests of a number of wealthy and powerful clients no matter what the cost. The series sees Corbo hired to discover the truth behind an exploding medical satellite by the billionaire Peter Swann, played by Fraser, who designed the rocket and suspects that it was sabotaged. Of course, things in these stories are never simple, and complications arise in the forms of Swann's fiancée, Dr Grace Davila, played by Elena Anaya, who used to have a thing with Corbo.
The series will follow Corbo and his team of veteran professionals as they delve into a conspiracy that involves Swann's rivals, a criminal syndicate and of course corruption in the government, which all sets up a thrilling tale to tell. Add in a rogue Interpol agent in the form of Inglourious Basterds star Ken Dunken, and we are all good to go with action a plenty in this ten part series. Also starring in the production are Saïd Taghmaoui, Lisa Loven Kongsli, August Wittgenstein, Stevel Marc, Tanya Van Graan and Nic Rasenti.
The show comes from Jeff Most, the producer of movies such as The Crow, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and the Sylvester Stallone movie The Specialist, and Michael Colleary, best known in the action field as the producer of the Nicolas Cage/John Travolta movie Face/Off. The long list of executive producers on the show include Welling, Fraser and Anaya along with Tristan Orpen Lynch, Michael Auret, Howard Cohen, Eric d'Arbeloff, Jennifer Berman, Maijang Mpherwane, Dipak Chiba, William Smith,Herbert Kloiber, Thomas Augsberger, Cosima von Spreti, Fredrik Ljungberg and Maxim Korostyshevsky.
German indie studio Leonine wrapped filming on the series back in September 2020, and the series was the first sale completed for their world sales unit. While there is no idea yet of when the series will arrive on the crowded The CW's schedule, with the series already in the can it is likely that it will arrive sooner rather than later.
Brendan Fraser has been making something of a comeback recently, having been announced for roles on Darren Aronofsky's The Whale, Martin Scorsese's Killers of The Flower Moon and the Legendary comedy, Brothers. With Professionals now finding an American network, it looks like there is a lot for Fraser fans to get excited about in the coming year.