HBO has announced that it will co-produce the BBC’s upcoming miniseries 1536, as first reported by Variety Wednesday morning. The six-episode series will serve as an adaptation of English screenwriter and playwright Ava Pickett’s (The Great, Bad Education) stageplay of the same name. The play explores the ways in which the lives of three Tudor women are affected by the dissolution of Henry the Eighth’s marriage with his second wife, Anne Boleyn — a dissolution that infamously ended with her beheading.
“A darkly comic and terrifyingly relevant story about friendship, sisterhood, and a changing world,” Warner Bros. Discovery’s official press release reads, “1536 explores how the actions of a man in power changes the fate of working-class women on the edges of the country. It asks if a King can murder his Queen, what does that mean for women elsewhere and how much have things really changed?”
Despite only running for about a month, the original 1536 stage play, which premiered at the Almeida Theatre in London just last year, received rave reviews from critics. For her script, Pickett received the Susan Smith Blackburn prize, an annual award intended to recognize exceptional female, transgender and non-binary playwrights in the United Kingdom. Since then, Pickett has been involved in a number of international productions, including writing director Baz Luhrmann’s (Romeo + Juliet, Elvis) upcoming Joan of Arc biopic. Now, she returns to adapt her breakout script for the silver screen as writer, director, and executive producer.
“I’m so excited and thrilled to be working with HBO, the BBC and Drama Republic on 1536,” Pickett states in the release, “and feel very lucky to have them champion this story so fiercely. And to be collaborating with the brilliantly talented Molly Manners is a dream come true. I can’t wait to bring this story about power, patriarchy and friendship to a new audience.”
The exact parameters of HBO’s involvement in the series are yet to be disclosed, but HBO Executive Vice President Francesa Orsi had this to say in the press release: “We’re elated to partner with Ava Pickett and the BBC to bring her first television series to life. Ava is an immense talent, and we couldn’t be more excited and honored to work with her on transforming her singular vision of 1536 from stage to screen.”