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Netflix sets The Crown for 2016

Netflix has ended months of speculation by greenlighting its first original series in the UK, a US$100m drama following the life of Queen Elizabeth II.

Six months after news of the deal broke, the US streaming giant has now ordered the series from Academy Award nominees Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost/Nixon) and Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot, The Hours).

The drama, inspired by Morgan’s play The Audience, will be produced by Sony-owned UK prodco Left Bank Pictures in association with Sony Pictures TV.

The 10-episode first season will premiere on the streaming series in 2016.

“The Crown is storytelling that lives somewhere between television and cinema from Britain’s foremost chroniclers of modern politics, class and society,” said Cindy Holland, VP of original content at Netflix.

Morgan and Daldry will be reunited with Left Bank Pictures’ MD Andy Harries, who also worked on The Queen, to exec produce alongside Robert Fox and Matthew Byam Shaw.

Each season will look at the politics, events and personal stories across a decade of the monarch’s reign. Season one begins with a 25-year-old Princess in 1952 as she builds a relationship with the UK’s wartime leader Winston Churchill.

At least three actresses will portray Queen Elizabeth II in the new production.

Confusion surrounded the status of The Crown last month when Netflix’s chief content officer Ted Sarandos declined to comment about the project during his keynote speech at Mipcom in Cannes.

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