Deadline reports that Big Light Prods and Lux Vide are teaming up to develop Medici: Masters of Florence, an eight-part drama series that will chronicle the rise of the Medici family and the Italian Renaissance.
The series will dramatize the story of the family’s ascent from simple merchants to power brokers who sparked an economic and cultural revolution, in the process creating a long list of powerful enemies. Richard Madden will play the lead, enterprising son Cosimo de’ Medici, while Dustin Hoffman is family patriarch Giovanni de’ Medici.
“The Medici came to power at a time of great social and economic inequality," said producer Frank Spotnitz. "They were great disrupters. Their banking practices led to the creation of a middle class, making them unimaginably wealthy. The Medici in turn used their vast power and resources to challenge traditional thinking, ushering in a new era of revolutionary art and science such as the world had never seen. It’s a powerful story that resonates even now.”
Sergio Mimica-Gezzan will direct all the episodes, with principal photography scheduled to start this month in Rome and Florence.