Jordan Karlesson
If you marveled over pics showing an unrecognizable Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein earlier this year, you’ll wanna feast your eyes on Michael Douglas as Benjamin Franklin.
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Michael Douglas in Franklin: An Overview
The project started filming in the spring in Paris, according to Deadline.
Apple TV+ is referring to Franklin as a “limited event series.” The streaming service reportedly hasn’t yet announced the program’s release date.
Apple said in a statement earlier this year that Franklin will feature Michael Douglas’ dramatic portrayal of the Founding Father.
The story featured in the series will retell events in Franklin’s life as described in the 2005 book A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America.
The Story of Franklin in France
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Stacy Schiff wrote the tome, which focuses on the eight years Franklin spent in France seeking support from the country as America became a democracy.
“The drama will explore the thrilling story of one of the greatest gambles of Benjamin Franklin’s career,” Apple’s statement said. “At age 70, without any diplomatic training, Franklin convinced France – an absolute monarchy – to underwrite America’s experiment in democracy.
“By virtue of his fame, charisma and ingenuity, Franklin outmaneuvered British spies, French informers and hostile colleagues, all while engineering the Franco-American alliance of 1778 and the final peace treaty with England of 1783,” the statement continued. “The eight-year French mission stands as Franklin’s most vital service to his country, without which America would not have won the Revolution.”
Michael Douglas in Franklin on the Way
Kirk Ellis is writing the screenplay for Franklin. He won an Emmy Award for the screenplay for John Adams, which won the most Emmys of any miniseries ever. Tim Van Patten (The Sopranos, Game of Thrones) is directing.
Presumably, Franklin will come out in 2023. That’d be 10 years after Michael Douglas famously played another historical figure, Liberace, in Behind the Candelabra.
That role earned him a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie.
Michael Douglas is 78 years old. Benjamin Franklin died at age 84 in April 1790 in Philadelphia, where he is buried.
