Saturday, December 17, 2011

Pope Joan TV miniseries premieres tomorrow

A heads-up that Pope Joan, the film based upon Donna Woolfolk Cross's bestselling historical novel about a legendary woman from Dark Age Germany, will be broadcast as a two-part TV miniseries on the REELZ channel in the US.

The first showing is on December 18th & 19th at 8-10pm EST; there appears to be a second showing of each episode later on both evenings, starting at 11pm EST.  Check with your local TV schedule to confirm!

I'll be watching it for sure.  We switched over to satellite TV from cable earlier this year, and we actually get that station.

I've been waiting to see this film for two years.  Mark and I were in Germany when it debuted - the photo at left, taken at the Nuremberg train station, was one of many on display throughout the city.  However, the film being shown wasn't the original English-language version (added: the one being shown tomorrow and Monday) but one dubbed into German for German audiences.  My facility with the language wouldn't have been sufficiently good to follow along, alas.

See more at the REELZ website for the film or the author's home page.  If you miss this one, there's an encore presentation on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

27 comments:

  1. I just screamed with excitement!!!!!! Thank you for letting us know about this.. I had no idea!!! AWWW! I'm set to record the first one. I can't tell when the second part comes on?

    I'm going to blog about this too!

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  2. I didn't know I had this channel - but I do. Thank you so much for a great tip!

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  3. Happy to spread the word! And yes, please pass the news along... I wouldn't have known about this if I wasn't on the author's email list.

    Looks like part two is on Monday night, same time as Sunday. I found a note on her website that explains the timing better than I can :)

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  4. I must figure out how to record the second part. It appears as all the same title when I did a menu search. I will just run through and record them all to be on the safe side. I'm stoked. I just blogged and FB'd about it. Thanks so much.

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  5. Um.. crap. Is this German with English subtitles? Cause I'm all excited here and set to record and um, just realized it doesn't say cc anywhere.. I'm deaf. If it doesn't have closed captioning or subtitles.. errrr.

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  6. Yeah, the channel listings didn't indicate part 1 or part 2. It all shows up as the same title, like you said. I had to manually set it to record the first showing on Fri and Sat nights, and I hope that does it.

    The miniseries is in English. Let me go clarify that in my post. It was filmed in English, but German audiences preferred the audio in their own language, so it was dubbed for viewing there. I don't know about the closed captioning and will see if I can find anything out. I can see that that would be a problem if it wasn't...

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  7. Just saw your review of Scottish Prisoner in the Globe and Mail - lovely!
    'not overlong at 500 pages'? I could have used twice that length :-)

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  8. I realize that in comparison to her Outlander series, The Scottish Prisoner was on the short side :) And thanks!

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  9. Tara - well, hmm. On the web, I found two applications they filed with the FCC for exemptions to the legal closed-captioning requirement (for programs that were mostly non-vocal music). By which I'm guessing that the rest of their programming IS closed-captioned - the applications imply as much - but you're right, I don't see "cc" anywhere on their site. I hope it will be.

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  10. I am so upset. I just blogged and FB'd about something I won't even be able to enjoy. I'm just...grrr.

    I am going to record it anyway and just HOPE... but this has happened before and I'm usually disappointed.

    Thanks for letting me know.

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  11. I found a FB page for the film... someone is responding to comments there on the author's behalf. Wonder if she'd know, or would know who to ask? Anyway, FWIW. I'll be hoping for good news.

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  12. Thanks. I'll head over there right now. :)

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  13. Thanks for sharing. I'll be setting my DVR for it. Had no idea there was one, or I'd have moved the book up on my list to read for this year.

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  14. Thanks, Sarah. Did not have a CLUE about this film which, like others, I've been longing to see. I've re-posted this info on Facebook for my historical novelist friends.

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  15. Hi Sarah and Pat - my DVR is set and ready to go, too. And thanks for spreading the word!

    Here's a blurb from the author's newsletter that gives some more info about the film...

    The good news: no one has ever seen this version of the movie. That's because this version of Pope Joan has an additional 25 minutes of film that was excised from the theatrical release. And they make the movie even better! This special two-night mini-series also includes an interview with me and probably some "behind the scenes" film in a "Making of Pope Joan" extra.

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  16. Yay. totally looking forward to this. My mom is too!

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  17. Good news, Sarah! It's cc'd!!!! The CC is a bit slower than the picture, but I don't care! :)

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  18. Excellent! I'm really pleased - I'd been wondering how things turned out.

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  19. Sarah, I'm jealous - those of us Down Under will probably have to wait another year before the series arrives here :(

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  20. Anonymous7:33 AM

    Thank you soooo much for letting us know about "Pope Joan". It was
    absolutely fantastic - the best thing I've seen on TV in ages! Normally I can't stay up that late, but I was glued to the TV.

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  21. Elisabeth - that's frustrating about the extended wait. The movie is worth waiting for, but that's a long time.

    And Anon, glad to hear you enjoyed it! I'll be watching part 2 tomorrow from DVR.

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  22. Anonymous10:44 AM

    Now I am wondering when it will be issued on DVD . . .

    Plus, I am still wondering who the central figure is in the novel that the PJ author is writing. Evidently 17th century France, with a religious focus. Madame de Maintenon has been "done" . . . . It's a longshot, but how about Louise Hollandine, one of the daughters of Elizabeth of Bohemia (the Winter Queen)?

    Sarah Other Librarian

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  23. I've been reading about the upcoming 17th-c France novel for some time. The exact topic is being kept very quiet! I'd love to read more about Louise Hollandine - Margaret Irwin's The Bride is one of my favorites.

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  24. Anonymous4:16 PM

    Ooh it is very scary that you also know about Louise Hollandine . . . .

    I believe I read here that Mary Sharratt's next book is on Hildegard of Bingen. There is a recent German movie out on DVD about her - VISION - by Margarethe von Trotta. Might appeal to the PJ fans.

    Sarah Other Librarian

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  25. Yep - actually I've been reading/collecting novels about royalty (especially lesser-known ones!) for many years.

    Mary Sharratt's novel will be called Illuminations. She's just revealed the cover art - it should be online someplace. I didn't know about the Hildegard DVD, so thanks for the heads-up. Wonder if it's in Netflix...

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  26. VISION is indeed available on Netflix in streaming or DVD format. It's in my queue, but I haven't yet watched it. And actually, POPE JOAN is also in my queue on Netflix--although it is currently listed as "DVD availability date unknown". But at least it seems they'll have it eventually, which is great as I don't have the REELZ channel.

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  27. Vision has been added! I've been bad about watching Netflix regularly, so it may be a while until I get to it. Pope Joan has been in my Netflix queue for two years, alas, ever since I came back from Germany. It's acting as a placeholder of sorts, in case it ever becomes available. Hopefully it will.

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