Academy Award-winning actor Russell Crowe is heading to television. He will star in Showtime’s adaptation of Gabriel Sherman‘s bestselling book, The Loudest Voice In The Room, which chronicles the rise and fall of Fox News founder Roger Ailes. Crowe will play Ailes in what will be an eight-episode limited series.
The series will mostly focus on the last decade of Ailes’ life as he became the de facto leader of the Republican Party, while also showing his initial meeting with Richard Nixon that led to the start of his political career, as well as the sexual harassment accusations and settlements that finally brought his Fox News tenure to an end.
Sherman has co-written the first episode of the series alongside Oscar-winning Spotlight director Tom McCarthy, who will also executive produce alongside Jason Blum. The show will be a co-production between Blumhouse and Showtime, with the former trying to make the jump away from producing solely horror films and into prestige TV, having also produced the upcoming HBO show Sharp Objects.
The series will reportedly be told through multiple points of view, and attempt to shed light on the psychology that drives the political process from the top down. Sherman interviewed over 600 people for his book, so his research is extensive, and with Crowe now on board, there’s a good chance the series will be filled out by plenty of A-list talent.
The show will mark Crowe’s first major TV work since early in his career when he starred in the 1980s show Neighbours, and will likely turn out to be one of his biggest roles. A director is currently not attached for the series, and as of now it’s unclear if Showtime is looking for a single filmmaker to helm the whole series or multiple directors to take charge of different episodes.
There’s also no word on when the series will eventually premiere, but there’s a chance it arrives sometime in late 2019, or perhaps early 2020.
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