Andrea Garfield (The Incredible Spider-Man) will star in a new limited series project titled Hot air in which he will play the famous British businessman Richard Branson. John Wick, Bullet TrainAnd Deadpool 2 director David Leitch he will also direct the series, which will be a different kind of project for him because this is not an action thriller.
The six-episode series was written by Jon Croker (Paddington 2), and is based on the book Dirty tricks by the award-winning investigative journalist Martyn Gregory. It tells the story of billionaire Branson and the fascinating and outrageous rise of Virgin Airways.
Branson launched Virgin Atlantic in 1984 on a chartered plane. In 1990, the airline began threatening British Airways’ dominance in the UK market after obtaining landing slots at London Heathrow Airport. In response, BA launched a “dirty tricks” campaign, with its staff using passenger data and impersonating Virgin employees to try to gain insider information about the emerging competitor and persuade Virgin customers to switch to BA.
Alerted by a BA insider, Branson complained to the European Commission about BA’s tactics. In response, BA created “Operation Barbara,” planting invented negative media stories about Virgin Atlantic. Branson sued and the high-profile case was settled on the eve of the trial, with BA apologizing and paying Virgin’s legal fees plus damages.
Branson continued to grow the airline, one of dozens of businesses in its portfolio. In 1999, he sold a 49% stake to Singapore Airlines with a valuation of over £ 1.2 billion.
If you’re interested in behind-the-scenes commercial dramas, this is definitely an interesting story, which is going to be a great and entertaining series.
Garfield recently earned an Emmy nomination for his role on the FX limited series Under the banner of heaven. Hot air it’s going to be another big project for the actor, and I’m sure it’s going to be great in the role of Richard Branson.
Source: Deadline
by Joey Paur
Source: Geek Tyrant
