The Good Doctor star Freddie Highmore will executive produce and join the cast of Frank Spotnitz and Steve Thompson’s Leonardo, a drama series that takes a fresh look at the life and legacy of the iconic artist Leonardo da Vinci, positing that he was a gay outsider who used his work as a way of hiding his true self. Each episode will examine one of da Vinci’s artworks for hidden clues about a tortured artist struggling for perfection.
Highmore will play Stefano Giraldi, a fictional police detective who frames the narrative, investigating da Vinci as the suspect in a murder case and digging into his past. Highmore’s Sony-aligned production company, Alfresco Pictures, will join Italy’s Luxe Vide and Spotnitz’s Big Light Productions to produce the show, with Alfresco’s Head of Development Claire Londy serving as co-EP. Backing the project is The Alliance, a new co-production group formed by pubcasters RAI in Italy, France Televisions and ZDF in Germany.
Spotnitz is best known for creating The Man in the High Castle, and for his work on The X-Files. Thompson created the British series Jericho for ITV Studios, and wrote on Sherlock. Previously announced, Aidan Turner (Poldark) will play da Vinci, and Daniel Percival (The Man in the High Castle) will direct.
“Capturing the character of Leonardo has been one of the most fascinating and exciting challenges of my career,” Spotnitz has said. “It’s hard to fathom that a man this extraordinary could even have existed, let alone the human impulses that drove him to achieve such extraordinary things.”
The project is the latest venture for Alfresco, which was formed in August 2018 with a two-year pact with Sony Television, to develop scripted series for broadcast, cable, streaming services and international co-productions. Hourlong dramas Love, Dad and Adversaries are set up at ABC, which also airs The Good Doctor, while TBS has Homesick, a half-hour dark comedy written by Highmore and James Mitchell. Highmore is repped by ARG, UTA, and Fred Tozcek.
A little over a year in, Highmore speaks below for the first time about the goals behind the formation of Alfresco Pictures, and he explains why Leonardo is the ideal project for the company to back.
In wanting to set up Alfresco, it came from a natural desire to be involved in a wider way in the industry that I think I first got into when I was writing and directing on Bates Motel, and then in writing and directing on The Good Doctor. I always had that natural curiosity to do other things. And that, I guess, shifted into not only wanting to develop my own ideas and projects that I was writing or directing or acting in, but also becoming a producer in a wider sense and helping other people tell their stories.
Claire Londy is the wonderful Head of Development at the company, and we are always looking for projects that have a broader point or message behind them, that try and spark conversations that aren’t being had or give a microphone to voices and experiences that haven’t been heard from before. And in particular, looking at more specifically a kind of masculinity and promoting shows that speak to or offer up different versions of masculinity. So, unpacking the prevailing, still reasonably narrowly defined, often quite toxic understanding of masculinity. But doing so from both male and female perspectives.
I think that came from me looking at what I had been drawn to as an actor in my characters. It was interesting, because it wasn’t something I has looked at self-critically before. What had drawn me to these projects? They were never the stereotypical, alpha male leads. Whether that was mental health being looked at with Bates Motel, and this very interesting relationship with a mother and a son. Or on The Good Doctor, obviously, Shaun not being your usual broadcast lead. And I think that’s not just what attracted me to them, but why people enjoyed and continue to enjoy those shows.
I hope “Alfresco”, aside from being a play on my real name, Alfred, speaks more widely to a sense of refreshing, communal openness that is reflective of the stories we gravitate towards at the company.
