James Gray to Write and Direct Drama Series Based on the Life and Career of Celebrated and Controversial Author Norman Mailer

James Gray, writer and director of Ad Astra, as well as The Lost City of Z and The Immigrant, has signed on to write and direct a drama series based on the life and career of the celebrated and controversial writer, Norman Mailer. Gray is teaming with John Buffalo Mailer, the son of the writer who died in 2007, to create the series, which will be based on J. Michael Lennon’s biography Norman Mailer: A Double Life.

“Mailer will tell the story of the rebel-intellectual, who documented the journey America took from World War II to WiFi and engaged in one of the most publicly controversial lives – of violent confrontations with literary lions like Truman Capote and Gore Vidal, political icons, sports legends, six wives and numerous mistresses. It will explore a life teeming with adventure, sex, love, violence, hope, strife, betrayal, disappointments, brutal tragedies, and epic triumphs – and some of the most influential writings of the 20th Century.”

Mailer’s most popular works include novels The Executioner’s Song, The Armies of the Night, An American Dream, Advertisements for Myself, Harlot’s Ghost, The Naked and the Dead, The Fight, Why Are We in Vietnam?, Marilyn, The Time of Our Time, and The White Negro: Superficial Reflections on the Hipster.

The project is being produced by Mailer Tuchman Media, run by John Buffalo Mailer, who himself has starred in films including Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and Blind.

James Gray said of the project:

“It’s hard to come up with another individual whose voice meant more in his time than Norman Mailer’s – he chronicled humanity in all its outrageous and ugly glory through a lens that was uniquely his own. I look forward to the exciting challenge of examining his wild legacy through this series.”

Are you interested in this series based on the life of Norman Mailer?

via: Deadline