Amber Neely
An eight-part drama about Benjamin Franklin's role in the American Revolution starring Michael Douglas is set to premiere on Apple TV+ on April 12.
The series will star Academy, Emmy, and AFI Lifetime Achievement Award winner Michael Douglas in the titular role. Douglas also serves as executive producer.
"Franklin" is a story based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America," written by Stacy Schiff. In December 1776, Franklin, already famous for his electrical experiments, embarked on a secret mission to France to seek support for American independence. Despite being 70 years old and having no diplomatic training, he successfully convinced the monarchy to support America's democratic experiment.
He outmaneuvered spies, informers, and colleagues to create the Franco-American alliance of 1778 and the peace treaty with England in 1783. This mission is Franklin's most significant contribution to America, regarded as the greatest tour of duty by an ambassador in American history
The series also stars Noah Jupe ("A Quiet Place"), Thibault de Montalembert ("Call My Agent!"), Daniel Mays ("Line of Duty"), Ludivine Sagnier ("Lupin"), Eddie Marsan ("Ray Donovan"), Assaad Bouab ("Call My Agent!"), Jeanne Balibar ("Irma Vep"), and Theodore Pellerin ("There's Someone Inside Your House").
"Franklin" joins other historical dramas on Apple TV, such as "Masters of the Air," and "Napoleon."
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Wesley Hilliard
AppleInsider Staff
Andrew Orr
William Gallagher
5 Comments
lol I hope to be pleasantly surprised but this looks ridiculous
Mr. Douglas appears to be channeling his late father.
Ken Burns did a 4-hour (short for him) film on Franklin's entire life for PBS a couple of years ago. You can see aa discussion Burns had with Mandy Patinkin, who voiced Franklin's own words for the PBS movie, and Michael Douglas at:
https://www.pbs.org/video/a-discussion-with-mandy-patinkin-and-michael-douglas-flo8rz/ .
Just going by the trailer, Douglas seems miscast as Franklin.
The casting of actors to play famous people requires an objective eye. Vanity projects do not allow that. We quite literally cannot see ourselves as others do. One problem famous actors have is that we “know” them and therefore must extend the principle of “willing suspension of disbelief” even further than usual. Some actors are so skilled that they can overcome this—Daniel Day Lewis’ Lincoln for instance. But Douglas basically always plays a version of himself, making his Franklin just look silly.
Ben was an OG thug, but this looks like another Tim Cook snoozefest