Press
AWARD WINNING TRAIL OF TEARS BY JOHN EHLE RE-OPTIONED BY CARD INTERNATIONAL FOR CHEROKEE SERIES ‘NATION’
Beverly Hills – April 2023
Card has announced the re-optioning of the best seller by John Ehle, “The Trail of Tears” for the series now packaging; NATION. NATION provides a fresh dramatization of the events that took place before the forced march of the Cherokee Indians. Treatment has been written by Emmy award-nominated writer Ron Parker (Hatfield & McCoys). Card and Parker developed the story.
In the acclaimed “The Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation,” John Ehle’s narrative spells out the drama of one Nation’s major theme’s – sovereignty vs. sovereignty. NATION will be based on this narrative.
“Exhaustive doesn’t begin to describe the intensity and scale of this phenomenal drama,” Card said in an interview. Card International’s twelve-episode miniseries, NATION, covers America’s post-revolutionary years of 1780 to 1845, a chapter of American history ending in the forced removal of the Cherokee people, the destruction of an entire culture
According to Card, NATION dramatizes the political conflict and Indian wars that build up to America’s Indian Removal Act by President Andrew Jackson and the violent forced removal of the ‘five civilized tribes’ from their native homelands.
Card, the filmmaker, with offices in Barcelona and Los Angeles, is responsible for the French-Canadian miniseries, Les Sang des Autres (Blood of Others) starring Jodie Foster, among other international co-productions. His team includes writer Brendan Burns, researcher and historian Zoe Bowthorpe, and work over the years with Cherokee expert the late Professor Duane King, former director of the Gilcrest Museum and author of The Cherokee Nation: A Troubled History.
Card International, with offices in Barcelona, Miami and Los Angeles and a background in international coproduction, is in discussions with potential co-producers, distributors and media platforms.
According to Card, “the first NATION miniseries is not just grand scale historical drama. This will be nothing less than ‘television’ history.”
Card International Corporation is represented by Stephen Breimer,
Brecheen, Feldman, Breimer, Silver & Thompson
For details contact [email protected]
Award winner Ron Parker to co-write episodes for TELEVISION series ‘Nation’ with Lamar Card
Barcelona – Feb 02 2023
Lamar Card, head of Card International has announced the award winning writer Ron Parker is cowriting the miniseries NATION – an insight into America’s infamous two hundred and fifty year old relationship with its “first nation people.” The miniseries is based on the best seller by John Ehle, “Trail of Tears.”
“Exhaustive doesn’t begin to describe the intensity and scale of this phenomenal drama,” Card said in an interview. Card International’s first twelve episode miniseries, NATION which covers Americas the post-revolutionary years of 1780 to 1845, a chapter of American history ending in what is known as the “Trail of Tears.”
“It has been difficult and vast,” Card commented “but it is a thrill to be finally at the stage of script completion on the first of our four miniseries. This enormous drama reveals a story of ethnic cleansing of which few are aware in America’s history.”
Card, the filmmaker, with offices in Barcelona and Los Angeles, is responsible for the French-Canadian miniseries, Les Sang des Autres (Blood of Others) starring Jodie Foster, among other international co-productions.
According to Card, NATION dramatizes the political conflict and Indian wars that build up to America’s Indian Removal Act and the violent forced removal of the ‘five civilized tribes’ from their native homelands in the Southeast of America by Andrew Jackson, General of the Armies. The period spans Jackson ́s adult life from 1810 to The Battle of New Orleans in 1814, and then President from 1829 to 1837. “The planning of the removal and destruction of the culture of America’s ‘first nation’ people actually began with Thomas Jefferson,” Card said.
“Jefferson’s position was a deadly reversal of the policies of assimilation of, and solemn promises to, the Native Americans by Washington and Adams. Jefferson was the beginning of the end for the Cherokee and many tribes.” “Unknown to most,” Card said, “it was a true reign of terror that Jackson unleashed against the tribes, a virtual orgy of blood and destruction during the Jackson military and presidential years”. The irony is that the Cherokee, the Lower Creek, the Chickasaw and other tribes actually spilled their blood in support of Jackson’s military campaigns from Alabama to Florida and even at New Orleans against the British. NATION is the real largely untold story of Jackson as an Indian land speculator, slave-trader an unstoppable military force and as President. Andrew Jackson’s calculated deception of the tribes rose to a scale of horror unimaginable… at least until the world sees NATION.
Relying on solemn oaths and treaties the ‘five civilized tribes’ were pushed into an impossible political corner by Andrew Jackson from which they discovered too late there was no way out. To the Cherokee’s horror, after spilling blood at Jackson’s side and giving all based on Jackson’s promises in support of his military campaigns, the tribes realized they had actually played the crucial role in giving him the power, the key to their own destruction. The tribes ́ alliances were crucial to Jackson ́s rise to power and the victories that gave him the very power to renege on all promises and treaties; the power they handed him became the power he used to destroy them.
“The scale of political intrigue, drama, human conflict and historical intricacy that makes up this story is so great, completing the episodic scripts for the first of the NATION miniseries almost feels like a military victory,” Card noted. “But this miniseries is just the first. “America’s schizophrenic relationship with its ‘first nation’ people carries on through the episodes of our next four miniseries to the present day. We create two amazing fictional characters those descendants are the thread that allows us to carry this epic tale to the present day in the three sequel miniseries.”
Card International, with offices in Barcelona, Miami and Los Angeles and a background in international coproduction, is in discussions at EFM with potential co-producers and distributors and media platforms seeking early rights in the return for support of the next phase of packaging.
According to Card, “the first NATION miniseries is not just grand scale historical drama. This will be nothing less than ‘television’ history,” he remarked.
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TELEVISION SERIES Torquemada BY writer George Kaczender’s IN PROGRESS
Los Angeles, US – Oct 02/16
Card International S.L, of Barcelona and Los Angeles made the announcement today that they were continuing with the television series Torquemada based on the Spanish Inquisition by writer George Kaczender. A writer/director with European roots, and many international awards, George Kaczender wrote the story with company head, Lamar Card, and was set to write the pilot and direct one or more of the episodes of miniseries Torquemada. The drama is expected to be a five episode miniseries and Spanish-Italian or Spanish-French co-production. Sadky Kaczender has passed away since writing the story but the series is still in progress.
“Without a doubt,” Card said, “this material deals with one of the darkest and most dramatic periods in European history, the Spanish Inquisition during the reign of The Catholic Queen Isabella I.”
“However the team is devastated by the news of George’s passing and we will now put all our efforts into ensuring it goes ahead as he would have wished.”
George Kaczender was a Hungarian-born writer and director, and recently published author, with 33 movies to his credit including Don’t let the Angels Fall, In Praise of Older Women, and The Girl in Blue and Chanel Solitaire among others. A founding partner of International Cinemedia Center in Montreal, Kaczender’s debut feature film Don’t Let the Angels Fall was nominated for the Palm D’Or in Cannes, his second U-Turn for the Golden Bear in Berlin. He has also passed on his wealth of experience as Adjunct Professor at the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television, teaching film directing. He is survived by his wife and will be greatly missed.
Speaking of the project, Zoe Bowthorpe, head of Card International’s development team based in the Barcelona office, noted that “within a labyrinth of secrecy the relationships between Isabella, Pope Sixtus IV and Isabella’s husband Ferdinand II took on a fanatical dimension at the beginning of the Inquisition in 1478. When Isabel’s former confessor Torquemada is made Grand Inquisitor he passionately proceeds to purify Spain’s Catholic core through all the terror and torture imaginable. George was intrigued by this period in history and his research and imagination wove an incredible story of Torquemada at this point in history.”
Zoe Bowthorpe, an historian herself, is to oversee Kaczender and Card’s story and the pilot script. Card said of George joining “we were thrilled to have George on board for this miniseries, we’re just very sorry that he passed away before the story was bought to the screens. He was a writer/director with a deep knowledge and passion for the miniseries time and place. Frankly, we’ve been inspired by the success of The Borgias and The Tudors.” According to Bowthorpe, “reports of Crypto-Judaism and of growth of non-Catholic Christianity meant Isabella sought to purge all non-Catholics from Spain and territories with the Pope’s support. Gaining confidence from its pogroms, the Spanish Inquisition moved on under Torquemada ́s unlimited power to converts and Christians as “relapsed” faith. Torture, auto-da-fés and execution by burning, meant that Grand Inquisitor, Torquemada, quickly extracted confessions and restored orthodoxy amongst the populace.” Card called it “the darkest hour for Catholics in European history and drama of unimaginable scale.” The Inquisition spread to France, Italy and Portugal, all countries that are candidates for co-production of the miniseries. Card is in discussions at EFM with co-producers in these territories.
Card International has many co-productions to their credit, but “Torquemada” will be the third miniseries for the company. Simone de Beauvoir’s Le Sang des Autres (The Blood of Others) starring Jodie Foster, a French-Canadian co-production was the first. In addition the company’s Los Angeles office just announced completion of scripting the miniseries NATION.
With 25 years in entertainment, Card has worked with, produced, and/or released motion pictures and television entertainment through virtually every major studio and network in the US and many abroad. “International co-productions have long been a specialty of the company and the Barcelona office now gives us new reach,” Card said.
Card International’s staff can be reached at [email protected]
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