Oliviers mini-series in works

Legendary film couple Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh are the subject of a new TV mini-series, which is being executive produced by Laurence Olivier’s son Tarquin Olivier.

London-based production company Ten Cent Adventures is in development on 4 x 60-minute mini-series The Oliviers, about the life and love of the iconic British actors.

Radioman producer Paul Fischer has written the scripts and will produce alongside Radioman director Mary Kerr under their Ten Cent Adventures banner.

According to production a portion of the budget has already been raised through private investors while talks are underway with broadcasters and an A-list cast. A director has yet to be attached.

Fischer has optioned book The Oliviers by Felix Barker.

Multi-Oscar winning stage and film actors Olivier (Rebecca, Hamlet) and Leigh (Gone with the Wind), married between 1940-60, were famed for their tempestuous relationship.

“Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh’s romance was one of the most iconic, tempestuous, and fascinating of the 20th century,” Fischer told Screen.

“They went from matinee idols to national treasures together, from obscurity to gigantic fame, through jealousy, passion, and illness.

“They started their affair when they were both married to other people, with young children, and even after they divorced decades later they continued to mark each other’s lives. 

“They were both fascinating people in their own right, but what their love for one another brought out makes them even more engrossing.”

Fischer and Kerr’s 2012 feature doc Radioman, featuring George Clooney, Johnny Depp, Matt Damon and Meryl Streep, won the Grand Jury Prize at Doc NYC and was shortlisted for a Grierson Award.

The UK producer is currently finishing his debut non-fiction book A Kim Jong-Il Production, which is being pitched at the Books at Berlinale strand and has sold to publishers Viking Penguin in the UK and Flatiron-Macmillan in the US.

He is also an executive producer on Joe A. Stephenson’s drama Chicken.

Ian McKellen previously narrated 2001 TV doc Larry and Vivien: The Oliviers while Michael Radford has been attached to a feature about the couple.