Emmy nominee Cynthia Erivo will star in and executive produce “Steel,” a 1970s drama set in London about a fiercely ambitious arms dealer, for MRC Television and Civic Center Media.
Per the logline, Erivo (“Genius: Aretha Franklin,” “The Outsider”), will play protagonist Madeline Crowe, a self-made woman who seizes control of her own destiny in a high-octane and dangerous profession dominated by her male colleagues. Crowe, the daughter of Nigerian immigrants driven by an insatiable hunger to win at all costs, is also beholden to her son as a single mother. Through “Steel” we see how choices made by individuals desperate in pursuit of money and power shape the geopolitical landscape of our present, and how women like Crowe were the vanguard.
Matt Charman, Oscar nominated for co-writing “Bridge of Spies,” developed “Steel” under his Binocular production banner and brought it to MRC Television and Civic Center Media. Charman (“The Mothership”), will executive produce via Binocular along with co-EPs Valery Ryan and Annelie Simmons. The thriller series is slated to be directed by Francis Lawrence.
“Steel” is written by Adam Gyngell and Fred Fernandez-Armesto. Erivo and Solome Williams will executive produce via their Edith’s Daughter banner; Lawrence and Cameron MacConomy via about:blank; Gyngell and Fernandez-Armesto. Edith’s Daughter is under a first-look deal with MRC Television and Civic Center Media.
Erivo is repped by UTA, Authentic Talent and Literary Management, ID and Peikoff Mahan; Gyngell and Fernandez-Armesto are represented by CAA, Grandview, and Saylescreen. Lawrence is repped by CAA, 3 Arts and Hansen, Jacobson; Charman is repped by CAA, Grandview, Independent Talent Group, and Hansen Jacobson.