The actor Russell Crowe will play the disgraced former Fox News executive Roger Ailes in a biopic about the architect of the conservative television channel.
The eight-episode Showtime series is based on Gabriel Sherman’s 2014 book, The Loudest Voice in the Room, which chronicles the rise and fall of the media mogul who shook up the US political news landscape.
It marks the first major US television role for the Oscar-winner, who is best known for the films Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind.
Ailes, who founded Fox News in 1996 and spent two decades at its helm, died in May 2017 of a subdural haematoma after a fall in his Florida bathroom. He was 77.
A year earlier he was ousted from Fox News after allegations of sexual harassment by more than 20 women. The former Fox host Gretchen Carlson alleged Ailes had fired her after she refused to have sex with him and also subjected her to “severe and pervasive sexual harassment” during her 11 years at the network. Ailes denied all allegations.
Ailes’ departure preceded that of the Fox News presenter Bill O’Reilly in April 2017, who also faced claims of sexual harassment, which he denies.
Ailes, who reportedly received a $40m payout from Fox News, briefly served as an adviser to Trump before the 2016 presidential debates. The former TV executive had been an adviser to Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon.
In announcing the series, David Nevins, the president of the US cable channel Showtime, said: “In many ways, the collision between the media and politics has come to define the world we live in today.
“We’ve seen this phenomenon depicted on screen as far back as the story of Charles Foster Kane, and it finds contemporary embodiment in the rise and fall of Roger Ailes. With Russell Crowe in the lead role, this limited series promises to be a defining story for this era.”
No air date has been announced for the series, which will focus on Ailes’ journey from local TV producer to one of the most influential forces in news.
Vanity Fair reported that the pilot episode had been co-written by Sherman and a Spotlight writer, Tom McCarthy.
Associated Press contributed to this report
