Three-time Emmy winner Julianna Margulies will star in The American Heiress series, set up at MGM+. Author Daisy Goodwin is serving as showrunner of the eight-episode adaptation, which is expected to begin production this month in the UK.
The series will be executive produced by Goodwin, Stacey Snider, Julianna Margulies, Damian Keogh, Stella Merz, and Kirstie Macdonald.
“The American Heiress is a story about mothers and daughters, old society obligation and new world entitlement, and the search for meaning in a world distorted by money,” stated Goodwin. “I hope it will make viewers laugh, think, and swoon. I am a history nerd, but I am also a fan of the Hollywood golden age—think Consuelo Vanderbilt meets Rebecca! I am beyond excited to be working with Julianna Margulies, who embodies the majesty and frustration of Isabella Cash.”
Catherine Morshead, Sandra Goldbacher, and Edward Hall are confirmed to direct.
MGM+ released this synopsis: “In 1893, beautiful and vivacious Cora Cash is a ‘dollar princess’ reluctantly brought to England by her mother, the formidable Mrs. Cash, in search of the ‘one thing she can’t buy at home, a title.’ Cora thinks she is in love with Teddy, an American artist, but when she falls off her horse in a hunting accident and wakes up in Lulworth Castle, the seat of the 12th Duke of Wareham, all her certainties are challenged.
Cora wants above all to do the right thing, but in the morally ambiguous world of the ‘naughty nineties’ England, where the first rule is never to comment on a likeness when visiting the nursery, she struggles to know what path to follow. Her mother, Isabella, meets her match in the Double Duchess, a woman who goes through dukedoms like kid gloves. Will Cora find a place in this world of intrigue where everyone knows the rules except her – will she choose the Old World or the New?”
Julianna Margulies’ recent credits include The Morning Show, Billions, The Hot Zone, and Dietland.
