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Tag: Roma Downey

  • Cote de Pablo Back on CBS, Jewish Again, But In a Very Different Role

    Cote De Pablo is best known for her role as Ziva David, an Israeli Mossad officer turned NCIS agent, on the CBS hit series NCIS (the first one). But De Pablo left the show at the beginning of season 11.

    Since leaving NCIS, Cote De Pablo has landed two roles. One is in a feature film called The 33, which is about the Chilean mining incident in 2010. She plays the wife of one of the miners. De Pablo was born in Santiago, Chile where she lived until she was 10. Her birth name is María José de Pablo Fernández.

    But she is also working with Roma Downey’s production company on the upcoming faith-based mini-series The Dovekeepers. The mini-series is based on the novel by Alice Hoffman. It is about four women who lived during the roman siege of the Jewish Masada stronghold in the first century.

    The mini–series follows the success of Downey’s The Bible ten-part series on History.

    Downey recently told reporters recently at the Television Critics’ Association, “I think that we’re seeing the desire for [faith-based programs] is back. I think [The Bible‘s success] shows that people are interested in these themes and they are hungry for product that inspires.”

    “I think [the mini-series] stays very true to the essence of the book,” Downey said. “There are many characters in the book and we have four hours…. We expand in some places and condense in others. I think that fans of this book will love it. They will see some differences, but I think everyone will be happy.”

    Cote de Pablo joined Downey and her co-star, House of Cards actress Rachel Brosnahan, in a promo clip for The Dovekeepers as they were shooting it.

    The mini-series airs March 31 and April 1 on CBS. It stars Cote de Pablo from NCIS, Rachel Brosnahan from House of Cards, Kathryn Prescott from Finding Carter, and Diego Boneta from Pretty Little Liars.

  • Roma Downey: Touched by an Angel Star Back with New Faith-Based Mini-Series

    Roma Downey and her husband Mark Burnett have become the couple to watch when it comes to faith-based television programming. Downey is famous for 10 years of Touched by an Angel, of course. But she and husband Mark also caught the eye of the public with their ten-part mini-series for the History Channel, The Bible.

    The mini-series was put out by Downey and Burnett’s production company LightWorkers Media.

    “I think that we’re seeing the desire for that is back,” Downey told reporters recently at the Television Critics’ Association in Pasadena. “I think [The Bible‘s success] shows that people are interested in these themes and they are hungry for product that inspires.”

    Now LightWorkers is launching a new project, this one based on the novel by Alice Hoffman, The Dovekeepers.

    “I was so profoundly touched by the story of a persecuted peoples who in the face of persecution, stood up for what they believed in,” Downey says of the novel.

    According to Amazon, the novel The Dovekeepers is set in the time of the siege of Masada, a Jewish stronghold that held out after the romans razed Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

    “Nearly two thousand years ago, nine hundred Jews held out for months against armies of Romans on Masada, a mountain in the Judean desert. According to the ancient historian Josephus, two women and five children survived. Based on this tragic and iconic event, Hoffman’s novel is a spellbinding tale of four extraordinarily bold, resourceful, and sensuous women, each of whom has come to Masada by a different path. Yael’s mother died in childbirth, and her father, an expert assassin, never forgave her for that death. Revka, a village baker’s wife, watched the murder of her daughter by Roman soldiers; she brings to Masada her young grandsons, rendered mute by what they have witnessed. Aziza is a warrior’s daughter, raised as a boy, a fearless rider and expert marksman who finds passion with a fellow soldier. Shirah, born in Alexandria, is wise in the ways of ancient magic and medicine, a woman with uncanny insight and power.

    “The lives of these four complex and fiercely independent women intersect in the desperate days of the siege. All are dovekeepers, and all are also keeping secrets—about who they are, where they come from, who fathered them, and whom they love.”

    “I think [the mini-series] stays very true to the essence of the book,” Downey said. “There are many characters in the book and we have four hours…. We expand in some places and condense in others. I think that fans of this book will love it. They will see some differences, but I think everyone will be happy.”

    The mini-series airs March 31 and April 1 on CBS. It stars Cote de Pablo from NCIS, Rachel Brosnahan from House of Cards, Kathryn Prescott from Finding Carter, and Diego Boneta from Pretty Little Liars.

  • Cote de Pablo: ‘NCIS’s’ Ziva David Headed Back to CBS

    Cote de Pablo, best known for her role as Ziva David on the CBS hit show NCIS, is returning to the network this spring. No, she won’t be back at NCIS, reprising her role as Michael Weatherly’s (Tony DiNozzo) love interest. She is set to appear in a two-part miniseries called The Dovekeepers instead.

    The Dovekeepers is based on the book of the same name by famed author Alice Hoffman. Husband and wife producers Roma Downey and Mark Burnett cast Cote de Pablo, along with Rachel Brosnahan, Kathryn Prescott, Diego Boneta, and Sam Neill.

    Downey said after the huge success of her Bible miniseries on The History Channel (it drew in over 100 million views), she knew viewers would be “hungry” for Dovekeepers. She also admitted she decided to produce because she isa huge fan of the novel.

    “At its heart, Dovekeepers is a love story…there is tragedy, of course, but at its heartbeat, there is beauty and hope,” Downey said on the TCA panel.

    The dark story of Masada, which was filmed in Malta, is “profoundly moving,” she said.

    If it’s any consolation to NCIS fans, and it likely won’t be, The Dovekeepers will air in the spot following NCIS on March 31st. The second part of the miniseries airs on April 1st. Cote de Pablo was surprised to hear this little tidbit of news.

    “Really?” she exclaimed after Roma Downey told the Television Critics Association about the March 31 scheduling.

    It seems the hope is that Cote de Pablo’s NCIS followers will be “very noisy” in drawing attention to the movie, according to Roma Downey. The project dramatizes the siege of the ancient desert fortress of Masada–now part of Israel–by Roman Empire troops.

    Even though this isn’t a reprisal of her role as Ziva David, will you tune in to see Cote de Pablo in The Dovekeepers?