Dustin Lance Black will write a series based on A. Scott Berg’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Charles Lindbergh biography for Paramount TV, the studio said Thursday. Berg will executive produce the project with Leonardo DiCaprio, Kevin McCormick and Jennifer Killoran.
Berg’s book chronicles one of the most famous figures of the 20th century. Lindbergh was the first person to mount a solo transatlantic flight, a feat that made him an international celebrity. Yet his life took a turn for the tragic when his son was kidnapped and murdered.
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“In Lindbergh’s story, we have the very first case of a worldwide media sensation,” Black said in a statement. “He was an American daredevil, innovator, record breaker and icon, but he was far from perfect. I’m eager to dig into the story of a man who stumbled in his fame, but showed a willingness to learn and attempt to rectify the unseen ramifications of what the world still considers his greatest successes … a man who urged the world to, ‘Listen until the end.’”
Lance Black won an Oscar for a script about another prominent figure, San Francisco mayor Harvey Milk, and also wrote a movie about J. Edgar Hoover.
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“Lance is as talented and prolific as anyone working in television and film today, and we take enormous pride in working with him to adapt Scott’s brilliant portrait of one of the nation’s most fascinating cultural figures,” Amy Powell, President of Paramount Television, said in a statement. “It’s also incredibly gratifying to partner with Scott, Leo, Jen and Kevin on making ‘Lindbergh,’ an extraordinary television event that captures the scope and significance of this Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece.”
Steven Spielberg bought the rights to Berg’s book more than a decade ago — before it was published — but the project never materialized. DiCaprio already partnered with Berg on another project, his biography of Woodrow Wilson.