Marisa Abela is eyed to play Elizabeth Taylor in new TV drama
'Industry' star Marisa Abela is wanted to play legendary Hollywood actress Elizabeth Taylor in the upcoming drama 'Elizabeth Taylor vs The World'.
Marisa Abela is being lined up to play Hollywood icon Elizabeth Taylor in a new TV drama.
The 28-year-old actress – who has previously starred in the acclaimed BBC drama 'Industry' and portrayed Amy Winehouse in the 2024 biopic 'Back to Black' – is said to have caught the eye of executives as they look for a star to bring the seven-times married 'Cleopatra' actress to life on the small screen.
An insider told The Sun newspaper: "Bosses of the adaptation want someone who can capture the essence of the single-minded woman that married seven times and was said to have had a voracious sexual appetite.
"It's very early days for the project but the producers want to assemble formidable British talent with the aim of making this a blockbuster series."
The show – titled 'Elizabeth Taylor vs The World' - is being developed by former 'EastEnders' boss Dominic Treadwell-Collins with his production company Happy Prince.
The company made the Disney+ adaptation of Jilly Cooper's racy novel 'Rivals' which proved to be a big hit last year.
The scripts are being written by The Times newspaper columnist Caitlin Moran and are based on the book 'Erotic Vagrancy', written by Roger Lewis about Taylor's passionate love affair with her husband Richard Burton.
Happy Prince is part of ITV Studios, which means that the series could end up on ITV. However, a bidding war between streamers is also a possibility.
An ITV Studios representative said: "Happy Prince are developing 'Erotic Vagrancy' for television. Caitlin Moran is writing a script for 'Elizabeth Taylor Vs The World' which we will be taking out to market later this year."
Marisa recently revealed that she had to take time away from social media when playing the tragic singer Amy, who passed away at the age of 27 in 2011, in 'Back to Black' because she felt as though she was "jumping in at the deep end" with the part.
The BAFTA-winning star told The Guardian: "As an actor, my job was to quieten all the noise and get as close as possible to the human behind that mythology. At the time, I was off my phone and off social media. But I knew the conversation that was happening, and there were paparazzi; that was difficult. It felt like jumping in at the deep end."
