A Gentleman In Moscow sees British star Ewan McGregor slipping into the well-heeled shoes of Count Alexander Rostov for this lavish period drama on Paramount Plus and Showtime.
This major period drama is adapted from Amor Towles’ historical novel A Gentleman in Moscow and follows Count Rostov who, in the aftermath of the Russian revolution, finds his once privileged existence places him on the wrong side of history. He faces a Soviet tribunal and instead of execution, he’s banished to the opulent Hotel Metropol indefinitely, threatened with death if he ever tries to leave. As the years pass Rostov makes a new life within the walls of the hotel while, outside, decades of tumultuous history unfold.
“It’s an amazing, wonderful story and I am very excited to get to play such a fabulous role,” says Ewan McGregor, who is also serves as. executive producer on the series.
So here’s everything you need to know about A Gentleman In Moscow...
A Gentleman in Moscow release date
A Gentleman In Moscow will premiere exclusively on Paramount Plus in the UK and Paramount Plus with Showtime in the US on Friday, March 29. The series also launches on March 29 on Paramount Plus in Canada, Australia.
For those in the US that do not have Paramount Plus, the show is premieres on the Showtime cable channel on Sunday, March 31, at 8 pm ET/PT.
How to watch A Gentleman in Moscow: stream the Ewan McGregor drama online
* Paramount Plus price: cost, deals and content for the streaming service.
* Sign up for Paramount Plus here.
A Gentleman in Moscow recaps
Read our recaps for A Gentleman in Moscow episodes to catch up with anything you may have missed:. We will be updating this episode guide as the series progresses...
A Gentleman in Moscow episode 1, "A Master of Circumstance"
"Count Alexander Rostov is confined to a Moscow hotel." Read WTW's A Gentleman in Moscow episode 1 recap.
A Gentleman in Moscow episode 2, "An Invitation"
"The Count reckons with his past while embarking on an unexpected romance." Read WTW's A Gentleman in Moscow episode 2 recap.
A Gentleman in Moscow episode 3, "The Last Rostov"
"As his old life crumbles, the Count receives devastating news." Read WTW's A Gentleman in Moscow episode 3 recap.
Is there a trailer for A Gentleman In Moscow?
Yes a great trailer for A Gentleman In Moscow has now been released which shows Ewan McGregor's Rostov on trial and then living in the Hotel Metropol. Take a look below...
A Gentleman In Moscow plot
In 1922 aristocrat Count Alexander Rostov, played by Ewan McGregor, is spared execution and sentenced to ‘house arrest’ by a Bolshevik tribunal following the Russian revolution. After years of luxury, Rostov must see out his days in an attic room in the opulent Hotel Metropol, opposite the Kremlin. As he tries to find a purpose for his life, decades of history are unravelling in the outside world, but Rostov is experiencing life-changing emotional discoveries of his own.
Rostov’s reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery. As he builds a new life within the walls of the hotel, he discovers the true value of friendship, family and love. Among his unlikely new fiends are a young girl Nina (Alexa Goodall). Her father is a committed Communist who constantly leaves her to her own devices while he’s working for the new regime. Plus he meets a film actress Anna Urbanova (Mary Ann Winstead).
A Gentleman In Moscow cast — Ewan McGregor on playing
A Gentleman In Moscow sees Ewan McGregor playing Count Rostov, who has never worked a day in his life but must find a point to his life while under house arrest.
Ewan explains: ‘The tale takes place over the next 35 years of Count Rostov’s life in that amazing hotel,’ says McGregor, 52. ‘It’s a story about him finding his way in his imprisonment and coming to terms with it over a long, long period of time. I can’t think of any drama like it.’
He meets Nina (Alexa Goodall) — her father is a committed Communist who constantly leaves her to her own devices while he’s working for the new regime.
"The Count’s friendship with Nina really helps him," explains Wean. "Nina shows him all of this hidden life in the hotel, all of these shortcuts and passageways and secret rooms. She opens up the life of the hotel to him in an amazing way, but also her mind and his mind come together in a nice way.’
As Nina grows up, she becomes more indoctrinated in Communist ideology and disappears from the Count’s life after a falling out. However, years later Nina returns with her daughter, Sophia.
"She tells the Count her husband has been taken to the gulag camps in Siberia,’ says Ewan. "She wants to try to find him so asks the Count to look after her daughter for a few weeks. We watch him struggling with looking after a child at first. It’s a drama about love and our children growing up and having to let them go."
The other great passion of Rostov’s life is his relationship with famous movie actress Anna Urbanova, who’s played by McGregor’s real-life wife, Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
"Their relationship is so baffling to the Count, because she’s such a modern woman and he is a very un-modern man," reveals McGregor. "Years and years go by, and you can never really pin down what this relationship is. But of course, it turns into the greatest love of either of their lives. And I can’t tell you how perfect it felt to play this beautiful romance with my wife. It doesn't get any better than that."
* Ewan McGregor rocketed to stardom in the 1990s playing Renton in Trainspotting in 1996, a role he reprised for the sequel in 2017. That decade he also starred in Shallow Grave and Brassed Off. His other movies have included Moulin Rouge!, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, A Life Less Ordinary, Little Voice and Black Hawk Down and he plays the iconic role of Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi in three Star Wars prequels plus the recent Disney Plus spin-off series. He also plays Doctor Sleep and has lent his voice to Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast and Cricket in Pinocchio.
Who else is starring in A Gentleman In Moscow?
Other cast for A Gentleman in Moscow includes Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who plays glam movie actress Anna Urbanova, a glamorous, independent and self-made film actress, at the height of her fame. Winstead and McGregor have worked together a couple of times previously, including in Fargo season 3 and Birds of Prey.
Alexa Goodall (The Devil’s Hour, Lockwood and Co) is playing Count’ Rostov's unlikely young friend Nina. Later in the series, the adult Nina's daughter Sofia is played by both Billie and Beau Gadsdon. The Count is left to care for Sofia after her mother Nina disappears while searching for her husband.
Johnny Harris (Without Sin, This is England ’86) is playing conflicted secret police officer Osip, and Fehinti Balogun (Dune, I May Destroy You) is Mishka, the Count’s best friend from university. Paul Ready (Motherland, The Terror) Prince Nikolai Petrov
who is also imprisoned at the Metropol and dreams of escaping.
Also starring is Leah Harvey (Foundation), John Heffernan (Becoming Elizabeth, The Pursuit of Love), Lyès Salem (Coupez, Abou Leila), Björn Hlynur Haraldsson (Lamb, The Witcher), Dee Ahluwalia (Consent, Sex Education) and Anastasia Hille (I Hate Suzie Too).
A Gentleman in Moscow behind the scenes, locations, and more
A Gentleman In Moscow is set almost entirely inside the Moscow Metropol, and was mainly shot on a Manchester sound stage in the UK, with 19th-century buildings in Leeds, Bolton and Halifax also used for scenes.
A Gentleman In Moscow is produced by Lionsgate Television in association with Paramount an is directed and executive produced by BAFTA award winning director and Emmy nominee Sam Miller who most recently directed, and executive produced the Apple TV+ series Surface and previously directed the award winning British comedy-drama I May Destroy You, for which he won a BAFTA. He has also received three Emmy nominations for Luther and for I May Destroy You.
A Gentleman In Moscow is produced by eOne in association with Paramount. The series is written by showrunner and executive producer Ben Vanstone (All Creatures Great and Small, The Last Kingdom). Harper (War and Peace, Peaky Blinders) also executive produces with Xavier Marchand (Nautilus, Mrs Harris Goes to Paris), Ewan McGregor, and the novel’s writer, New York Times best-selling author Amor Towles.
