BBC Arts has commissioned Academy Award-winning production firm Passion Pictures (Searching for Sugar Man, Wham!) to make a three-part documentary series on Elizabeth Taylor, executive produced by and featuring Kim Kardashian.
The BBC unveiled the project with the working title Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstar on Monday, noting that Taylor is “one of Hollywood’s most famous names.”
Executive produced by Kari Lia, Hamish Fergusson and Kardashian, the series promises to feature “privileged access to those who knew her best, including members of Elizabeth Taylor’s family, friends, and colleagues from throughout her stellar career.” And it vows to shine the spotlight on “a superstar who transformed not just Hollywood but fame itself, as she went from child star to highest-paid actress in the world.”
A show description also highlights: “For too long the story of Elizabeth Taylor has been told as a soap opera. The eight marriages, the diamonds, the addictions. This series gives Elizabeth Taylor the significance she richly deserves, in all her incarnations: as an actor, rebel, business mogul, and activist – to reveal how Taylor created the blueprint for modern celebrity.”
The series will take a deep dive into the legendary star’s craft and technique as an actor and “how she reinvented the nature of fame, even as she smashed the glass ceiling in Hollywood, before going on to become a billion-dollar businesswoman, activist and advocate.”
The series promises to “draw on never-before-heard audio tapes, interviews, and unseen TV footage, alongside rich archive of her movies.” It will also feature interviews with a range of stars who knew Taylor personally, including Kardashian, “who conducted the last interview with her before she died, Dame Joan Collins, a friend and Hollywood contemporary who competed with Elizabeth for the role of Cleopatra, Margaret O’Brien, who went to school with her on the MGM backlot, close friend Carole Bayer Sager, leading scientist Dr. Anthony Fauci who worked alongside Elizabeth in the fight against AIDS, and others.”
Said Kardashian: “Elizabeth Taylor was unapologetically herself, a fighter. She is proof that you can keep evolving and changing and have different chapters in your life – and she paved the way for all of us who came after her with that blueprint.”
Added Alistair Pegg, commissioning editor at the BBC: “This exciting series promises a new understanding of Elizabeth Taylor – both her technique and power as an actor, and her capacity for reinventing herself.”
The production will be distributed internationally by Fremantle. Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstar is currently in production and will air in the U.K. on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer.
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