Rosalind Franklin TV Series In The Works From Groundbreaking Scientist’s Great-Niece & ‘Outer Banks’ Director Valerie Weiss

EXCLUSIVE: Natalie Portman is playing her in a movie, Nicole Kidman portrayed her on stage and now the life of groundbreaking British scientist Rosalind Franklin, whose work was crucial to DNA and Covid-19 vaccines, is being adapted for the small screen.

Rosalind Franklin’s great-niece Jessica Franklin is penning Secret of Life, which is being directed by Outer Banks‘ Valerie Weiss and produced by A Hidden Life maker Elizabeth Bay Productions.

Rosalind Franklin died aged just 37 in 1958 but her work was central to our understanding of the double helix structure of DNA. Many decades later, her structural virology work facilitated the development of Covid-19 vaccines.

Rosalind Franklin is a hugely popular figure in the science world and in 2023 scientists concluded that she was an equal player in the discovery process of DNA alongside James Watson and Francis Crick.

Her story was brought to life in Anna Ziegler’s play Photograph 51, in which she was played by Kidman, and that play is being adapted into a Tom Hooper movie from FilmNation starring Portman. We understand the show is distinct from the movie and will take a broader look at Rosalind Franklin’s life. Casting on the small screen version is being led by Shakyra Dowling, who cast Kidman in the play, and WestEnd Films will be selling at MIPCOM Cannes.

Jessica Franklin said bringing her great-aunt’s story to life is “the greatest challenge and the greatest honour of my life.”

She added that Weiss – who said Rosalind Franklin had “been my hero since I first studied biology” – “is the ideal person to finally give Rosalind’s story and character the justice that history has denied her.”

Weiss and Rosalind Franklin will EP the biopic alongside Eugin Koh. Elizabeth Bay Productions, the indie run by DDA founder Dennis Davidson and Grant Hill (Matrix), has been behind the likes of Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life.

Weiss is managed by Antoni Kaczmarek at 42 and repped by Sean Freidin at CAA, and Victoria Cook and Lauren Bishow at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein + Selz PC.