Kelsey Grammar has signed on to star in the pilot for Amazon’s adaptation of The Last Tycoon, a series based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s unfinished novel.
According to Deadline, Grammer will co-star in the series with American Horror Story: Hotel veteran Matt Bomer and Rosemarie Dewitt. The series will be written, directed and co-produced by Billy Ray, who wrote the screenplays for The Hunger Games and Captain Phillips, among others.
Set in 1930s Hollywood, The Last Tycoon recounts the rise of fictional movie studio executive Monroe Stahr, to be played by Bomer. Grammer has been cast as Pat Brady, Stahr’s boss and mentor. Dewitt will play Brady’s wife, Rose, who may or not have an affair with Stahr.
Fitzgerald’s story and characters are loosely based on real Hollywood executives of the era. Stahr is meant to be a stand-in for Irving Thalberg, “the boy wonder” who became head of production for the newly formed MGM studio at age 26. Brady is based on Louis B. Mayer, AKA the second “M” in MGM. Amazon has tapped biographer and Fitzgerald expert A. Scott Berg as a consulting producer, presumably to help the writers expand the story organically.
This is not the first attempt to bring The Last Tycoon to life. The Harold Pinter-penned 1976 film featured Robert de Niro as Stahr and Robert Mitchum as Brady.
The Last Tycoon pilot is currently set to begin shooting in late February.