By Hoai-Tran Bui/April 14, 2021 5:30 pm EST
Variety reports that The Good Wife writer and producer Jacqueline Hoyt has been tapped to write a limited drama series called Audrey, which will be a biographical adaptation of the life of Audrey Hepburn. (Don’t mix it up with the documentary of the same name.) Italy’s Wildside, the Fremantle company behind The Young Pope and My Brilliant Friend, is producing.Audrey is based on a treatment co-written by Hepburn’s son Luca Dotti (whose father, Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti, was married to Hepburn in 1970 before they divorced 10 years later), and Italian journalist and writer Luigi Spinola. Dotti and Spinola co-authored the 2015 bestseller Audrey at Home, which was a part-biography, part-cookbook which combined anecdotes, excerpts from Hepburn’s letters, her recipes, and some unpublished family photographs.
In the book, “Luca and Luigi explored the singularity of Audrey’s real self,” per a Wildside statement, adding that “the muse, the mother and the later humanitarian all closely relate to a girl that never stopped to be amazed by the gift of life.”
But Audrey will be more than a glorified family cookbook — the series will explore Hepburn’s “formative years,” the statement said. As of now, there are no further details on the series or its casting.
With a Hollywood icon like Hepburn, whose face graces countless college dorms and movie exhibition halls, there’s an immediate burden on a biopic to “get it right.” But there’s one major pitfall with trying to depict the actress of classics like Roman Holiday, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Sabrina, and My Fair Lady — she’s known more for being the face of glamorous Hollywood fashion than for being a talented performer in her own right (which is a shame, because her charisma is through the roof) or for her later years as an activist. As a result, most depictions of her end up feeling more like impressions than flesh-and-blood portrayals, which is what you’d need from a good biopic.
Audrey will be executive produced by Wildside CEO Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Gangarossa with Ludovica Damiani, who originated the project. Dotti and Spinola will also serve as executive producers.
