BBC Studios have teamed up with Simon Lupton’s indie producer Seven Seas Films and Dan Sefton to develop series centered on the final months of Marilyn Monroe’s life, according to Variety
The show has the working title The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe and will examine her relationships with public figures such as JFK and Joe Dimaggio. The show will also be based off of the book, “The Final Years of Marilyn Monroe: The Shocking True Story,” written by Keith Badman.In his book, Badman tells the story through a variety of perspectives, a style in which the series will mimic. It will also detail the delays to report her overdose when she died. Monroe died in 1962, yet still remains fascinating to many. Producers say that the show will cover the time frame in which her behavior became erratic as she increased drugs and alcohol usage.
Sefton, who’s written for Trust Me, and The Good Karma Hospital, will write the series and said “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,” Sefton said.
Over time many networks and studios have tried to get the story of Monroe’s life right. Norma Jean & Marilyn was HBO’s made for TV movie that focused on Monroe’s life. The movie earned Emmy and Golden Globe nominations in 1996, along with My Week With Marilyn starring Michelle Williams which also earned critical acclaim. Lifetime was another network that tried a miniseries titled The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe.
Anne Pivcevic, BBC Studios executive producer, said “big themes such as power, love, loyalty and politics.” She also said “In the last few months of her life, Marilyn was sincerely loved, callously betrayed, cynically filled with hope and ultimately cruelly abandoned. Her death changed the lives of everyone in her orbit and cemented her status as a legend.”