According to a reports in Deadline and Variety, a new eight-part Israeli television drama, Tehran, is in the works. It tells the story of Tamar Rabinyan, an Iranian-born Mossad agent and cyber spy who takes on a very dangerous first mission, to disable the nuclear reactor in Teheran. When problems arise, Tamar goes undercover and falls in love with a pro-democracy activist. Israeli actress Niv Sultan has been cast in the lead.
Variety reports that the series creators will be Moshe Zonder, one of the writers of Fauda, the Israeli counterterrorism drama that has become an international hit on Netflix, who will partner with Dana Eden (Mother’s Day) and Maor Kohn. Kan, the Israeli public broadcaster, is also a producer, while the UK company, Cineflix Rights, will distribute will the eight-part drama.
Alon Aranya and Shula Shpigle are listed as producers on the Internet Movie Database, and Omri Shenhar will be one of the writers. Daniel Syrkin will direct. One of the producers will be Kan, the Israeli public broadcaster, and the UK-based Cineflix Rights will distribute the series.
Aranya is currently teaming up with Robert and Michelle King, the creators of the series, The Good Wife, to produce an American version of Your Honor, the Israeli drama created by YES about a judge who gets involved with the underworld when his son hurts someone connected to the mob in a car accident. Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad is playing the judge.
Zonder told Deadline, “Tehran deals with the secret war led by Mossad and the Israeli Air Force to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. At the center of this spy-thriller packed with action, suspense and romance, we find a young female Mossad agent, born and raised in Iran. Through her journey and the unfolding drama around her, Tehran aims to shed new light on the Israeli-Iranian conflict, and take on universal struggles around immigration, identity and patriotism, to examine whether it is possible to become free from these restraints.”
Ynet reports that novelist/screenwriter Ron Leshem (Beaufort, Euphoria) is working on a television series that will recreate some of the most fierce battles of the Yom Kippur War, to be called Closing Time. He will be teaming up with Gal Zaid (Hostages) and Amit Cohen (False Flag). Filming will begin at the end of the month in the Golan Heights and the creators will use innovative technologies, similar to those used in the battle scenes in Game of Thrones, to make the savage tank battles, including one in which 1600 Syrian tanks battled 200 Israeli tanks, look more authentic. Season two will shift south and look at fighting in the Sinai.
Among actors who have been cast are Aviv Alush, who will play an intelligence officer in a secret surveillance post; Joy Rieger as a female officer who stays at her post after the other women have been evacuated; and Lior Ashkenazi as a journalist who comes to search for his son.