If there are times when it seems that Apple TV + is positioning itself to be the new HBO (in terms of its proposals), this is one of them. The platform has announced a new miniseries based on the life of the multifaceted American statesman Benjamin Franklin, who will be played by none other than Michael Douglas (whom we last saw in ‘The Kominsky Method’).
Franklin’s master move
And watch out because this is where the really interesting thing gets, since this biopic will be written by Kirk Elliswho, except for a few specials, we haven’t seen in action practically since he wrote one of his biggest hits for HBO: ‘John Adams’, a miniseries that won 13 Emmy awards.
Thus, Ellis returns almost fifteen years later to recount the life of one of the founding fathers of the United States based on Stacy Schiff’s book ‘A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America’. Together with him will be Tim Van Patten, one of the best directors on television payroll that we last had in ‘Perry Mason’.
The details of the miniseries are still sparse, to the point that Apple’s press release does not reveal what title it will have. The Benjamin Franklin biopic is a co-production between Apple and ITV and its synopsis reads:
“The drama will explore the exciting story of one of the greatest assets of Benjamin Franklin’s career. Aged 70, with no diplomatic training, Franklin convinced France—an absolute monarchy—to finance the American experiment in democracy. Thanks to his fame, charisma and ingenuity, Franklin outwitted British spies, French informers and his hostile colleagues, while engineering the Franco-American alliance of 1778 and the definitive peace treaty with England of 1783. The eight years of mission in France they constitute Franklin’s most important service to his country, without which the United States would not have won the Revolution.”