Russell Crowe will star as Roger Ailes in a TV series about the rise of Fox News
- Russell Crowe is starring as the late Fox News chief Roger Ailes in a Showtime limited series about the rise of Fox News, Entertainment Weekly reports.
- The eight-episode series, titled "The Loudest Voice in the Room," will be based on Gabriel Sherman's best-selling non-fiction book of the same name, for which he interviewed over 600 people.
Russell Crowe is coming to TV to star as the late Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes in a Showtime limited series about the rise of Fox News, Entertainment Weekly reports.
The eight-episode drama series, titled "The Loudest Voice in the Room," will be based on Gabriel Sherman's best-selling non-fiction book of the same name.
Tom McCarthy ("Spotlight") and Jason Blum ("Get Out") are serving as executive producers for the series.
Ailes died in May 2017, nearly a year after he was forced out of his post at Fox News after being accused of sexual misconduct by several employees from the network. EW notes that Crowe's role as Ailes will be the actor's first regular role in a television series.
"To understand the events that led to the rise of Donald Trump, one must understand Ailes. The upcoming limited series takes on that challenge, focusing primarily on the past decade in which Ailes arguably became the Republican Party's de facto leader, while flashing back to defining events in Ailes' life," Showtime described the series in a statement.
"Told through multiple points of view, the limited series aims to shed light on the psychology that drives the political process from the top down," the description continued. "McCarthy's deft handling of similarly complex, high-stakes storytelling in Spotlight earned him an Oscar for co-writing 2017's Academy Award winner for best picture, plus an Oscar nomination for directing. For the primary source material, 'The Loudest Voice in the Room,' Sherman interviewed more than 600 people."
No premiere date has been set for the series yet, though Entertainment Weekly reported that it's likely to debut in 2019.