Washington [US], January 27 (ANI): Popular novel ‘The Great Gatsby’ is coming to television! Screenwriter and producer Michael Hirst is working on a TV series based on the iconic novel.
A+E Studios and ITV Studios America are joining hands with Hirst for a big-budget TV series based on American author F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous novel, reported The Hollywood Reporter.
However, a network is not yet involved as the co-producers plan on shopping the upcoming series to premium cable and streaming outlets. It is being envisioned as a miniseries, for which Hirst will pen the script.
Hirst will also serve as the executive producer alongside Groundswell Productions’ Michael London. Fitzgerald’s estate is also involved as Blake Hazard, a great-granddaughter of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and a trustee of the estate will serve as a consulting producer.
According to sources, A+E Studios has had the rights to the iconic novel for decades, dating back to the 2000 TV movie that starred Paul Rudd as Nick Carraway, Toby Stephens as Jay Gatsby, and Mira Sorvino as Daisy. The movie was a co-production with BBC and aired stateside on A&E.
The Hirst-led upcoming adaptation has been in the works for at least three years, dating back to when he had an overall deal with Barry Jossen’s A+E Studios.
“I seem to have lived with Gatsby most of my life, reading it first as a schoolboy, later teaching it at Oxford in the 1970s then re-reading it periodically ever since,” Hirst said, speaking about the upcoming project.
Hirst’s project will explore New York’s Black community in the 1920s as well as the musical subculture. Described as a reimagining, the series will dig deeper into the hidden lives of its characters through the modern lens of a fractured American dream while also capturing the full majesty of Fitzgerald’s timeless vision.
Hirst is widely known for creating the Netflix drama series ‘Vikings’. He is currently readying the limited series ‘The Plague Year for History’. Hirst’s ‘Vikings’ sequel, Valhalla, moved to Netflix as an original series from MGM Television.
Meanwhile, ‘The Great Gatsby’ has been adapted for the big screen several times, with takes in 1926 (toplined by Warner Baxter), 1949 (with Alan Ladd), 1974 (starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow), and in 2013 (with Leonardo DiCaprio). (ANI)
