The series has many Polish touches. It’s directed by Agnieszka Holland and her daughter Katarzyna Adamik (second director). The film crew also included, among others, a Polish cinematographer Jacek Petrycki. Music was composed by Antoni Komasa-Łazarkiewicz, and the series also features Wojciech Pszoniak in the supporting role of a specialist of old manuscripts. The four episodes, each about an hour long, will be broadcast on the Lifetime channel on 1st, 8th, 15th and 22th May, 2015.
American writer Ira Levin's horror story about a woman who falls victim to a Satanic sect was published in the U.S. in 1967. Roman Polański brought it to cinemas a year later. The protagonist was played by Mia Farrow, with a cast including John Cassavetes, Sidney Blackmer and Ruth Gordon.
After the press screening of Rosemary’s Baby, Holland was asked about her attitude towards Polański’s film:
This series is a great occasion to reinterpret Levin’s classic novel and to relate to Roman’s film as well, a great film, but at the same time not my favourite of this director's films. I didn’t feel like I had to do it “on my knees”, I was able to “unstick” from it.
The director stressed that Polański himself reacted well to her idea of a TV adaptation of Rosemary’s Baby, he gave them “carte blanche”.
In the TV series, Rosemary is portrayed by Zoe Saldana, known from James Cameron’s Avatar. Guy, Rosemary’s husband, is played by Patrick J. Adams. The “evil” married couple, the Castevets, is portrayed by Jason Isaacs and Carole Bouquet – former model and Bond girl from For Your Eyes Only.
The plot takes place in contemporary Paris. Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse move to Paris from New York after the traumatic experience of losing a baby, looking for peace in their new city. In Paris they are “accidently” offered a place in a prestigious apartment building. They pay a high price for luxury, as the building has a sinister past.
At the beginning everything is fine. Rosemary is pregnant again and Guy’s career as a budding writer gains momentum – he becomes a lecturer at the Paris Sorbonne. The Woodhouses meet their new neighbours, a wealthy, slightly older couple, Mr Roman Castevet and his wife Margaux.
Sometime later, Guy begins to drift apart from Rosemary, so she spends more time with the Castevets. It soon turns out that Rosemary’s pregnancy is not going well. Disturbing signs begin to show, in the psyche of the mother-to-be as well. The Castevets, who symbolise diabolical powers, are a very attractive couple.