Assaad Bouab, Benjamin Ross, Asacha Media Team on ‘Voyager,’ About Medieval Explorer Ibn Battuta (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent On the heels of his acclaimed stage performance at London’s National Theater for “Phaedra,” Assaad Bouab (“Call My Agent!,” “Bad Sisters”) is set to team with filmmaker Benjamin Ross (“The Frankenstein Chronicles”) and European production banner Asacha Media Group on “Voyager.” “Voyager” will star Bouab as legendary Medieval explorer and philosopher Ibn Battuta who went on pilgrimage to Mecca and ended up travelling for over twenty years and over 76000 miles across Africa, India and Eurasia, more than anyone in pre-modern history.

Battuta logged his experiences of the people, places and cultures he encountered along the way, writing one of the world’s earliest and most famous travelogues, The Rilah, and earning himself legendary status in history.

The project is being developed as a series. Bouab, who is half Moroccan, said “Ibn Battuta is one of the greatest explorers of all time and I would have loved to have had his life.”  “For many years, his name was associated with a boat in my mind – the boat that I and my family used to travel on between Tangier and Algeciras in Spain, that marked the beginning of my discovery of a new world I now have the chance to live in his shoes for a while,” Bouab continued.

Ross, who will be showrunning “Voyager,” said “Ibn Battuta’s ‘Rilah’ is one of the most fascinating documents in history and a privileged window onto a vanished world.” “In our hands it’s also the scaffold for an epic, multi-series adventure of intrigue, ambition, global politics, romance, and spiritual quest that will entertain and enthrall audiences around the world.” Asacha Media group, the fast-expanding European production banner, owns several outfits, including the