Rosalind Franklin TV drama Secret of Life heads to MIPCOM
Rosalind Franklin, the chemist whose X-ray images helped reveal the structure of DNA, is the subject of a new television drama called Secret of Life.
The series is being written by Jessica Franklin, the scientist's great-niece, and will be directed by Valerie Weiss, with Elizabeth Bay Productions producing, according to Deadline. WestEnd Films will take the project to buyers at MIPCOM Cannes, the international television market in Cannes where distributors sell new shows to broadcasters and streamers. A sale there decides where a show lands and how it reaches viewers.
That family connection sits at the centre of the build. Jessica Franklin is the great-niece of Rosalind Franklin, writing from inside the family story rather than from outside it. In television, the writer shapes the scripts and story arc, the director guides performance and look on screen, and the producer oversees the production from development to delivery.
Rosalind Franklin died in 1958. She was 37. Her work was central to understanding the double helix, the twisted-ladder shape of DNA that carries genetic instructions. In 2023, scientists concluded she was an equal player alongside James Watson and Francis Crick in the discovery, after decades in which her contribution was underplayed. Her later work in structural virology, the study of the structure of viruses, also helped pave the way for Covid-19 vaccines.
The television series will take a broader look at her life. That sets it apart from a separate film project now in motion. Actor Nicole Kidman previously played Franklin on stage in Anna Ziegler's play Photograph 51. That play is now being adapted into a film directed by Tom Hooper for FilmNation and starring Natalie Portman, according to Deadline.
Casting on the television version is already under way. Shakyra Dowling is leading casting for Secret of Life. Dowling previously cast Kidman in the stage production of Photograph 51, which gives the new series a direct link to the earlier telling of Franklin's story.
Behind the series is Elizabeth Bay Productions, run by Dennis Davidson and Grant Hill. The company was behind Terrence Malick's A Hidden Life.
What makes this stand out is the double arrival. One life story is moving forward on two tracks at once, with a family-written series for television and a star-led film drawn from the stage play. The teams are different. The source material is different. For anyone coming fresh to Franklin's name, that means two separate chances to encounter a scientist whose work shaped modern genetics and vaccine science.
