Oscar winner Russell Crowe will play the role of disgraced Fox News chief Roger Ailes in an upcoming limited series.
Based on the Gabriel Sherman’s book The Loudest Voice in the Room, the eight-part series will showcase the rise and fall of Ailes who resigned from his post in 2016 following accusations of sexual harassment and passed away last year, Variety reported.
According to reports, the series focusesprimarily on the past decade in which Ailes became the Republican Party’s de facto leader. It will also feature other important events of Ailes life including an initial meeting with Richard Nixon on the set of The Mike Douglas Showand the sexual harassment accusations and settlements that brought his Fox News reign to an end
“In many ways, the collision between the media and politics has come to define the world we live in today,” David Nevins, president and CEO of Showtime Networks said.
“We’ve seen this phenomenon depicted on screen as far back as the story of Charles Foster Kane, and it finds contemporary embodiment in the rise and fall of Roger Ailes. With Russell Crowe in the lead role, this limited series promises to be a defining story for this era,” he added.
Crowe won the best actor Oscar for his role in Gladiator and received two other best actor nomination for his work in A Beautiful Mind and The Insider.
He recently played Henry Jekyll in The Mummy reboot and will next be seen in the Joel Edgerton-directed drama Boy Erased.
Tom McCarthy who won the screenwriting Oscar for co-writing 2017’s best picture winner Spotlight, and earned a second Oscar nomination for directing the film, will serve as the executive producer for the series alongside GetOut producer Jason Blumand Alex Metcalf.