NBC creating a show about George Washington, America's first president of sexiness
The hot trend of reanimating dead presidents that has swept our multiplexes, political conventions, and mad scientist labs has inevitably made its way to the network small screen, as NBC announces it's developing a series about the life of George Washington. Barry Levinson, The King's Speech writer David Seidler, Downton Abbey producer Gareth Neame, and Oz co-creator Tom Fontana are among those assembled behind the scenes, bringing their combined knack for biopics, historical dramas, and shows where men are crammed together in tiny spaces to bear on the story of America's first president, using the Ron Chernow book Washington: A Life as their basis. Like that Pulitzer-winning book—and Darren Aronofsky's own recently announced George Washington project—the series aims to reveal Washington's "true character for the first time," looking beyond the established hero's mythology to find the "flawed and troubled" man who was nevertheless allowed to lead, because the 18th century didn't have blogs yet.