Michael Douglas to play Benjamin Franklin in new TV series

AppleTV+ has officially announced that Michael Douglas will star in an untitled mini-series about Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States.

The show will be based on Stacy Schiff's book "A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America." Other details about the production of the series have not yet been disclosed.

Kirk Ellis ("John Adams," "Into the West") will adapt the book for the script, and Tim Van Patten ("The Sopranos," "Black Mirror") will take the director's chair. Douglas, in addition to playing Franklin himself, will also serve as executive producer on the untitled project. Schiff will join him as co-producer.