News, Television, Women Writers

Abi Morgan Planning a Cleopatra TV series with All-Female Writing Team

Morgan: BAFTA Guru/YouTube

Two-time Emmy winner Abi Morgan is taking on another iconic historical figure. The scribe behind Margaret Thatcher biopic “The Iron Lady” is in early development on a series about Cleopatra, Digital Spy reports.

Titled “Cleopatra,” the 10-part drama will focus on the famed Egyptian Queen as well as her sisters. The story kicks off when Cleopatra is 16.

Morgan spoke about the series at a recent event and revealed that she’s planning to work with an all-female writing team. “I love writing with men, but I also think, in this moment, one of the things I can do is send the elevator down and get more women writing,” the “Suffragette” screenwriter explained.

“Cleopatra” is “being pitched for a U.S. streaming service,” but we don’t know which.

The project sees Morgan joining forces with Tessa Ross (“Ex Machina”) and Juliette Howell’s (“London Spy”) indie film and television company House Productions.

Morgan is the creator and writer of “The Split,” an upcoming BBC One and SundanceTV drama about female divorce lawyers. “There’s a huge pressure as a female writer when you do a show,” she said at the same event she announced her work on “Cleopatra.” “I don’t particularly want to sit up here and go ‘it’s a female-led show’; I want to say it’s a drama and it’s got very strong roles in it. But I also feel a strong responsibility to say that because I feel for those other female writers who are in those writers’ rooms.”

“The Split” will premiere on April 24.

Morgan received Emmy nods for her writing on BBC America miniseries “The Hour,” an espionage drama set during the Cold War. She just signed on to adapt Christine Mangan’s new novel, “Tangerine,” for the big screen. Set in 1950s Morocco, the psychological thriller centers on former roommates with a complicated history.

Freeform and Amazon also have series in development about Cleopatra.

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