The Last Panthers

For the 2016 album by Clark, see The Last Panthers (album).

The Last Panthers
Also known as	Panthers
Genre	Action, Drama
Created by	Jack Thorne
Written by	Jack Thorne
Directed by	Johan Renck
Starring	Samantha Morton Tahar Rahim Goran Bogdan John Hurt
Theme music composer	David Bowie
Opening theme	"Blackstar" by David Bowie
Composer	Clark
Country of origin	France
Original languages	English French Serbian Croatian
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	6
Production
Production locations	London Marseille Belgrade Montenegro
Cinematography	Laurent Tangy
Running time	48 minutes
Production company	Warp Films
Original release
Network	Sky Atlantic (UK) Canal+ (France)
Release	12 November (2015-11-12) – 17 December 2015 (2015-12-17)

The Last Panthers is a Franco-British crime drama television series created by Jack Thorne and directed by Johan Renck.^[1] It is a fictional story inspired by the notorious Balkan jewel thieves the Pink Panthers. The six-part series premiered on Canal+ on 26 October 2015 in France and on Sky Atlantic on 12 November 2015 in the UK, Ireland, Italy, Germany and Austria. It first aired in the US on SundanceTV in April 2016.^[2][3]

Premise

The show opens with a diamond heist bearing a resemblance to those of a gang of thieves known as the Pink Panthers, before quickly delving into the dark heart of Europe where a shadowy alliance of gangsters and 'banksters' now rule.

Cast

• Samantha Morton as Naomi Franckom
• John Hurt as Tom Kendle
• Tahar Rahim as Khalil Rachedi
• Goran Bogdan as Milan Celik
• Camélia Jordana as Samira
• Corinne Masiero as The Judge
• Igor Benčina as Zlatko Mladić

Music

On 6 October 2015, international news media announced that David Bowie had arranged his new track "Blackstar" as the theme song of the show, as well as introducing the listener to 45 seconds of the intro. The series director, Johan Renck, said of both the artist and the song; "The piece of music he laid before us embodied every aspect of our characters and the series itself: dark, brooding, beautiful and sentimental (in the best possible incarnation of this word). All along, the man inspired and intrigued me and as the process passed, I was overwhelmed with his generosity. I still can’t fathom what actually happened".^[4]

Rolling Stone magazine's Daniel Krep said that the tune reminded him "of the bleak, haunting instrumentals on the back half of Bowie's 1977 album "Heroes"",^[5] and The Guardian suggested the song revealed Bowie 'at his most brooding.'

The series is soundtracked by Warp Records artist Clark. It is his debut TV score and director Johan Renck said "Chris's sensibilities and brazen creativity was bang on for a score to deal with everything from the Biblical grandeur of the story, via brooding darkness all the way over to tender sentimentality. He had it covered."^[6]

References

1. "The Last Panthers". Retrieved 3 September 2015.
2. Tv, Guardian (15 June 2015). "Exclusive trailer: The Last Panthers". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
3. Tv, Guardian (2 October 2015). "The Last Panthers – exclusive trailer for the Samantha Morton thriller". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 October 2015.
4. "David Bowie's theme song for The Last Panthers – listen here". The Guardian. 6 October 2015. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
5. Kreps, Daniel (6 October 2015). "Hear David Bowie's Haunting 'Blackstar' Theme From 'Last Panthers". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
6. "Clark scores new crime thriller The Last Panthers". Resident Advisor. 9 November 2015. Retrieved 12 November 2015.

External links

• The Last Panthers at IMDb