Morgan Freeman, Regé-Jean Page Developing Muhammad Ali Scripted Event Series At Peacock
Morgan Freeman and Regé-Jean Page are joining forces with BlackKklansman co-writer Kevin Willmott to develop a new scripted series for Peacock.
According to Deadline, the three men are working together with the streamer to create Excellence: 8 Fights, a scripted eight-part event series about boxing great Muhammad Ali. The series will be based on the definitive biography Ali: A Life by Jonathan Eig.
Here’s an official description of the series:
Written by Willmott, the series chronicles eight distinct and defining moments in Ali’s iconic life. Each episode will be framed by one of his fights, but the essence of the episode, what it’s really about, is the internal fight – the drama outside the ring. It will explore the struggle going on in the heart and mind of one of the most consequential and controversial figures of the 20th century.
Per Deadline, the Bridgerton actor is not in talks to play the legendary boxer in the series and is just executive producing as of now.
Willmott is serving as executive producer along with Freeman, Page, Emily Brown, and Lori McCreary’s Revelations Entertainment. Eig will serve as producer. CBS Studios and UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group, serve as the studios.
This has been a longtime passion project for Revelations and a priority for CBS Studios, where the company is based. They teamed to acquire Eig’s book shortly after it was published in October 2017 and set out to develop it as an event series. A different version of the project with writer Dan Kay landed at CBS All Access in a competitive situation in the spring of 2018.
The pitch since has been revamped, with Willmott joining as a writer/executive producer and Bridgerton and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves star Page as executive producer.
Willmott is an Academy Award-winning film director and screenwriter and professor of film at the University of Kansas. He is known for work focusing on the Black experience in such projects as BlackKklansman, Da 5 Bloods, The 24th, Chi-Raq, and Jayhawkers.
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