BBC Studios is developing a new drama series in association with Seven Seas Films (w/t The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe) telling the events of the last six months of Marilyn Monroe’s life, based on Keith Badman’s The Final Years of Marilyn Monroe: The Shocking True Story.
Marilyn Monroe died at 36. The last period of her life saw her seeking to assert herself with her Hollywood bosses. It also saw her increasingly erratic behaviour and dependence on alcohol and medication plunge her glittering film career into decline.
Dan Sefton (Trust Me, The Good Karma Hospital, Delicious, Porters) is writing the series, which draws upon Keith Badman’s book.
The Final Years of Marilyn Monroe: The Shocking True Story reveals new details about her involvement with American baseball player Joe DiMaggio, John and Bobby Kennedy and Rat Pack member Peter Lawford. It also explores the suspicious delays reporting her overdose on the night of her death.
The series will be executive produced by Anne Pivcevic (Silent Witness, Great Expectations, The Crimson Field, Little Dorrit) for BBC Studios and Simon Lupton (The Trip, Red Dwarf, My Family, Queen:Days of Our Lives) from Seven Seas Films.
Dan Sefton said: “I am thrilled to be working with BBC Studios 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."
Anne Pivcevic, Executive Producer, BBC Studios, said: “We are delighted to be developing this ambitious drama with Dan, which tackles big themes such as power, love, loyalty and politics. 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.”
Staff Reporter
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