MGM+ Greenlights Gilded Age-Era Series ‘The American Heiress’ Starring Julianna Margulies

Emmy-winning Paradise star Julianna Margulies will headline an MGM+ series based on a novel by Daisy Goodwin, the British writer behind ITV/PBS Masterpiece show Victoria.

MGM+ will adapt Goodwin’s 2011 book The American Heiress into an eight-part romantic comedy of manners, set during America’s Gilded Age and England’s Victorian era. The series is a FilmNation and Fifth Season co-production.

Margulies stars as Isabella Cash, a mother who brings her daughter, Cora, to England in 1893 to pursue the “one thing she can’t buy at home” — a title.

Cora thinks she is in love with Teddy, an American artist, but when she falls off her horse in a hunting accident and wakes up in Lulworth Castle, the seat of the 12th Duke of Wareham, all her certainties are challenged. Cora wants to do the right thing, but in the morally ambiguous world of “naughty nineties” England, she struggles to know what path to follow.

“The American Heiress is a seductive mix of captivating characters, old world class politics, and romantic ambition,” said Michael Wright, global head of MGM+. “Daisy Goodwin is a master at crafting entertaining and smart stories full of fascinating people and high stakes, and this show is Daisy at her best. Having Julianna Margulies lead this amazing cast with her unique strength, intelligence and charm is ideal.”

Goodwin added: “The American Heiress is a story about mothers and daughters, old society obligation and new world entitlement, and the search for meaning in a world distorted by money. I hope it will make viewers laugh, think, and swoon.”

Goodwin serves as executive producer alongside Stacey Snider, FilmNation’s chief creative officer. Margulies, Damian Keogh and Stella Merz, and FilmNation TV’s creative director Kirstie Macdonald are also executive producers. Joanna Crow is the series producer and Gemma Wright is a co-producer. The series will be directed by Catherine Morshead, Sandra Goldbacher, and Edward Hall.

The American Heiress will premiere on MGM+ in the U.S., UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, and Latin America. Fifth Season will handle global distribution. Production gets underway in the UK this month.

Margulies is represented by CAA, Cognition, Wolf Kasteler Public Relations and Gendler, Kelly & Cunningham.