Actress Marilyn Monroe, will be immortalised as the last six months of her life are to be retold in a new drama series, from the writer of BBC One’s ‘Trust Me’.
BBC Studios is developing the series with writer Dan Sefton and producer Simon Lupton, of Seven Seas Films. The series will reportedly shed light on the actress’s relationship with Hollywood studio bosses and US President John F Kennedy.
Sefton, whose medical drama series ‘Trust Me’ returns this year, said he was “thrilled… to bring this incredible true story to the screen.”
“Marilyn’s desire to be taken seriously as an actress and her battle with the powerful men who control the studio system is sadly as relevant today as it ever was,” said Sefton.
Monroe, star of such films as ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’, ‘The Seven Year Itch’ and ‘Some Like It Hot’, died in August 1962 at the age of 36. A death which was attributed to an overdose of sleeping pills, and has been the subject of multiple controversies and speculation since then.
The series, with the working title ‘The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe’, will be based on parts of Keith Badman’s 2010 book ‘The Final Years of Marilyn Monroe’.
According to BBC, it will be located “where the harsh glamour of 1960s Hollywood and the hard-edged politics of Washington intersect”. BBC Studios’ Anne Pivcevic said the “ambitious” drama series would tackle “big themes such as power, love, loyalty and politics”.
There are no details as to who will play Monroe for now, who was portrayed by Gemma Arterton last year in an episode of Sky TV’s ‘Urban Myths’.