Ms. Laurence Herszberg, founder and general director of Series Mania, announced today that HBO’s new half-hour comedy series Run will have its world premiere in Lille having been chosen as the 2020 Series Mania Festival Closing Night series. With the festivities and exclusive screening of the first two episodes set for March 28, it was also announced that Run’s writer and executive producer Vicky Jones will be in attendance for the screening, and earlier that day, will partake in a one-hour Q&A to discuss this witty and warm half-hour comedy series.
“We are proud to welcome for our closing night the world premiere of such a highly anticipated series as Run and we thank HBO and OCS for their trust,” commented Herszberg. “We are also pleased to celebrate the talent of its creator, Vicky Jones, whose work we have admired since Fleabag and Killing Eve, and who proves, if needed, that comedy is a genre where women's talent is precious. Run, along with Vicky, will put the final touches to a particularly female-inspired 2020 edition of Series Mania and we are delighted.”
Debuting April 12th on HBO and April 13 on OCS in France and starring Emmy winner Merritt Wever (Godless, Nurse Jackie) and Domhnall Gleeson (Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Ex Machina), Run is a romantic comedic thriller about a woman, Ruby Richardson (Wever) who walks away from her ordinary life in the suburbs to revisit her past with her college boyfriend, Billy Johnson (Gleeson), with whom she made a pact 17 years prior that if either one of them texted the word “Run” and the other replied with the same, they would drop everything and meet in Grand Central Station and travel across America together.
Recurring guest stars for season one include Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG winner, Phoebe Waller-Bridge (“Fleabag,” “Solo: A Star Wars Story”) as Laurel, a woman who Ruby and Billy meet on their journey; Rich Sommer (“Mad Men”) as Laurence, Ruby’s husband; Tamara Podemski (“Coroner”) as police detective Babe Cloud and Archie Panjabi (HBO’s upcoming “I Know This Much Is True,” “The Good Wife”) as Fiona, Billy’s former PA.
Executive produced by Vicky Jones, Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag, Solo: A Star Wars Story), Jenny Robins, Kate Dennis, Emily Leo and Oliver Roskill of Wigwam Films. Run is produced by eOne, the studio behind acclaimed HBO series Sharp Objects.
For more information on SERIES MANIA, please go to:
ABOUT SERIES MANIA
Created by Laurence Herszberg in 2010 in collaboration with artistic director Frederic Lavigne while both were at the Forum des images, the Series Mania Festival brings the best international series to the big screen and offers audiences (over 72,000 spectators in 2019) the rare opportunity to meet and learn from renowned showrunners, directors and television talent. Series Mania has developed into a unique event with wide recognition that is entirely dedicated to series, aimed at both the general public and industry professionals. For the 2020 edition, from March 20-28, the Festival will once again be held in the charming northern French city of Lille (Hauts-de-France). As usual, it will include a program of world premieres and series selected for competition, overseen by a prestigious international jury.
ABOUT SERIES MANIA FORUM
Launched in 2013, Series Mania Forum, the industry arm of the Series Mania Festival, has become the place to be for all those involved in the creation of series from around the world. In just a few years, Series Mania Forum has already seen many projects come to fruition, including Eden, Stella Blomkvist, Keeping Faith and Tabula Rasa, with many others currently in production. In 2019, the Forum held its second edition of Lille Transatlantic Dialogues, a one-day summit bringing together high-level political, corporate, creative and economic players from the TV and culture sectors in Europe and North America. With more than 3,000 registered professionals expected in 2020, the Forum (March 25-27) is now the place where industry talent and decision-makers meet to create the new generation of serial fiction.
