Deadline has revealed that Hulu is nearing deals for a pilot order for The Great, a limited drama series based on the rise to power of Catherine the Great.
The project stars Elle Fanning (Maleficent) and Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: First Class, Warm Bodies, Mad Max: Fury Road). Fanning, Deadline notes, was instrumental in getting the project together and pitched to Hulu, she will be executive producing the drama alongside Tony McNamara (The Favourite). The project hails from MRC (Ozark, House of Cards).
Written by Tony McNamara, The Great showcases the rise to power of Catherine the Great (Fanning) and her explosive relationship with husband Peter (Hoult), the emperor of Russia.
Catherine II, born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, was the daughter of a Prussian general, who was introduced to the prospective tsar Peter of Holstein-Gottorp when she was only 10 as part of European Royal families’ use of marriages as a tool for strengthening (and weakening) political ties between countries. Though she admitted to finding him detestable at first, the two eventually married after she had turned 16.
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HBO and Sky also have their own Catherine the Great project, an upcoming 4-part miniseries starring Helen Mirren, chronicling the end of Catherine's reign and her affair with Russian military leader Grigory Potemkin (Jason Clarke) that helped shape the future of Russian politics.
