At the last minute, the Emmys race is getting a big new contender.
The Hollywood Reporter can exclusively report that The Narrow Road Into the Deep North, a hugely acclaimed Australian limited series that was directed by Justin Kurzel (Nitram and The Order) and stars Jacob Elordi (Euphoria and Saltburn), was submitted for Primetime — as opposed to International — Emmys consideration just ahead of the TV Academy’s May 8 entry deadline.
The show, which Sony Pictures Television licensed to Amazon’s Prime Video, and which dropped on that streaming service on April 18, will be on the ballot in a handful of categories: best limited or anthology series, actor in a limited or anthology series or a TV movie (Elordi), directing for a limited or anthology series or a TV movie (Kurzel) and writing for a limited or anthology series or a TV movie (Shaun Grant, who penned all five episodes).
Adapted from Richard Flanagan’s 2014 Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name, The Narrow Road Into the Deep North centers on an Australian doctor before his deployment into World War II as an army surgeon; during his time as a POW, when he is sustained and haunted by memories of a brief affair with his uncle’s wife (Odessa Young of Mothering Sunday and the forthcoming Bruce Springsteen film Deliver Me from Nowhere); and decades after the war (when Belfast Oscar nominee Ciarán Hinds steps in for Elordi).
The current frontrunner in almost every Emmys category related to limited or anthology series is another production from overseas, Netflix’s British-import Adolescence. But even that cultural phenomenon cannot quite match the reviews of The Narrow Road Into the Deep North (the latter tops the former on Rotten Tomatoes 100 percent to 99 percent). And nobody is hotter at the moment than Elordi (who will also be seen as the star of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein in November).
Sony Pictures Television and Prime Video have indicated that they plan to push their show aggressively, and have already set an official FYC event, with a screening and panel featuring Elordi and Kurzel, for June 4, eight days before the beginning of the June 12-23 nominations voting period.