A Discovery Channel show about the making of the famous Harley-Davidson motorcycles and company will appear on Australian pay TV in November 2016 starring two Game of Thrones actors.
No premiere date for Australia has been finalised, but the three-part, six-hour mini-series will screen in the US on September 5, 6 and 7.
It features Game of Thrones stars Michiel Huisman (Daario Naharis) as Walter Davidson and Robert Aramayo (Eddard Stark) as William Harley.
Game of Thrones star Michiel Huisman as Walter DavidsonBut the real stars are the more-than-80 Harleys used in filming, starting with their motorised bicycles through the board trackers and flat trackers to the 1936 Knuckleheads.
Harley aficionados and historians may take exception to some of the “inaccuracies” introduced by Hollywood in the name of drama, however the team spent three years researching at thenHarley museum in Milwaukee so it should be pretty historically accurate.
Discovery group president Rich Ross says the mini-series is a story about “brotherhood, an ironclad will to succeed and going against the conventional wisdom of that time”.
“The founders of Harley-Davidson created more than just a motorcycle. They created modern entrepreneurism,” he says.
Much of the filming was done in Bucharest, Romania, because it was cheaper than filming in the US.
From the trailer it seems there are plenty of action scenes to em motorcycle enthusiasts happy.
Here’s what Discovery says about the plot:
Walter and Arthur Davidson and Bill Harley risked their entire fortune and livelihood to launch the budding enterprise. Each of these men faced very different challenges, but it was the motorcycle that united their dreams and ambitions. For Walter Davidson, the venture was a chance to escape from the confines of society – to ignore the rules and build a bike that could go anywhere and ride hard. For Arthur Davidson, it was an opportunity to finally make good on his name. And for Bill Harley, the bike gave him hope to break free from his overbearing parents and apply his talent as an engineer.
Built in a shed out of Milwaukee, these motorcycles were able to survive nearly every condition imaginable. And Walter certainly put the bikes to the test. His ferocious ambition propelled him to become a top motorcycle racer while competing in the deadly competitions sweeping the nation. Walter’s daredevil exploits put Harley-Davidson on the map – and while risky – pushed the company to eventually overtake their archrival competitor, Indian, which had a stronghold on the market.
But the founders also faced an underlying moral question – just how much would they risk to become successful? Racing could often have deadly consequences, especially with the rise of the hazardous motordrome competitions sweeping the country.
Fuelled by ingenuity, innovation and design, the founders of Harley-Davidson faced off against their much bigger rivals. If things couldn’t get any more difficult, the Great Depression hit and the motorcycle industry was decimated. But Harley-Davidson continued to defy the odds with their forward-thinking business ideas.
Isn’t it great that Discovery has chosen to create a whole mini series about the famous brand?