Paramount Brings THE ALIENIST To France

Paramount Worldwide Television Licensing & Distribution announced today the all-new period drama "The Alienist" has been licensed to STUDIOCANAL in France. The show will premiere on POLAR+ (CANAL+ Group's leading crime channel) in April.

An unflinching psychological thriller set amidst the underbelly of New York City's "Gilded Age," THE ALIENIST follows Laszlo Kreizler (Daniel Brühl, Inglourious Basterds, Rush, Captain America: Civil War), a brilliant and obsessive "Alienist" in the controversial new field of treating mental pathologies, who holds the key to hunting down a never-before-seen ritualistic killer murdering young boys. Based on the award-winning, fan-favorite novel by Caleb Carr, with standout performances from Luke Evans (The Girl on the Train) and Dakota Fanning (American Pastoral), THE ALIENIST is a gripping, turn-of-the-century murder mystery like none other: the story of the emergence of the world's most powerful city that will stop at nothing to bury its darkest secrets.

The series launched on January 22nd on TNT in the U.S. where it averaged 3.1 million total viewers in LIVE+3 viewing, including nearly 1 million viewers 18-49. The premiere reached a cumulative 13.1M viewers in telecasts, making it the network's most successful launch since 2012. In addition, the first episode also counts among its accomplishments a record digital opening for TNT having generated more than 4 million total minutes watched on TNT's apps and sites, sparking more than 10 million social engagements.

In The Alienist, Luke Evans plays newspaper illustrator John Moore and Dakota Fanning plays Sara Howard, an ambitious secretary determined to become the city's first female police detective. The series also stars Brian Geraghty (The Hurt Locker) as police commissioner Theodore Roosevelt, Douglas Smith (Miss Sloane) and Matthew Shear (Mistress America) as Marcus and Lucius Isaacson, twin brothers who help unravel the disturbing mystery; Matt Lintz (Pixels) as Stevie, a tough, young boy employed by Dr. Kreizler as a driver and errand boy; Robert Ray Wisdom (The Wire) as Cyrus, Kreizler's valet, a man with a dark past who has been reformed by Kreizler; and Q'orianka Kilcher (The New World) as Mary, Kreizler's mute maid with whom he shares a special unspoken connection.

Shot in Budapest, Hungary, THE ALIENIST is a co-production of Paramount Television and Turner's Studio T. BAFTA-nominee Jakob Verbruggen (Black Mirror) serves as director and executive producer along with Academy Award® winner Eric Roth (Forrest Gump), Academy Award® nominees Hossein Amini (Drive) and E. Max Frye (Foxcatcher), Anonymous Content's Steve Golin and Rosalie Swedlin, along with Chris Symes and Emmy® winner Cary Fukunaga (True Detective). Serving as co-executive producers on the series are Marshall Persinger (Rectify) and Jamie Payne (The Driver).