Actor-director Andy Serkis is set to direct "Madame!", a series based on Marie Tussaud, the French artist and entrepreneur who founded world-famous wax museum Madame Tussauds.
Serkis, known for CGI-powered roles such as Gollum in the "Lord of the Rings" films and Caesar in the "Planet of the Apes" franchise, is credited as creator and showrunner on the upcoming show.
According to entertainment website The Hollywood Reporter, "Madame!" is pitched as an untold story of the French artist known for her wax sculptures who sharpened her skills during the age of enlightenment and the French Revolution and escaped to England during the French Reign of Terror, founding her now-legendary wax museum in London in 1835.
Imaginarium, the production banner Serkis runs with Jonathan Cavendish, will produce the series along with Felicita Films' Marie Guillaumond.
Serkis said "Madame!" was not a "straight-up period drama".
"... it is a hilariously crazy, no holds barred, anarchic, punk caper conjured from the curiously twisted mind of a fabulously post-truth executioner's daughter!
"Marie knows one thing very clearly – if you're going to tell your own life story, make it entertaining, even if you have to make it up, and whatever happens, cut out the boring bits..." the director said.
The show will portray Tussaud as an "extraordinarily pioneering businesswoman who built her business from scratch" along the way sacrificing "relationships with nearly everyone close to her (including her own children), exchanging love for her legacy."
