PASADENA, Calif. _ Sometimes history can be so boring that nobody wants to hear about it. But Hulu plans to change all that when it presents its new 10-part "biography" of Catherine the Great, available Friday.
This is not the sternly sagacious Empress of Russia that audiences have seen before with Helen Mirren, or Catherine Zeta-Jones, or Bette Davis, or even Marlene Dietrich.
No, this is former child actress Elle Fanning, now grown up. And "The Great" is a comedy. What's more, it's not even historically accurate, says creator Tony McNamara. "When I see people tying their shoes with ribbons, I wanna kill myself," he says.
"So I was like, 'What would I watch? What would be exciting for me? A period show about a great character. But how would we do that in a way that twisted the genre a little bit and made it a show I would watch? And my 21-year-old daughter would watch, and people who liked history could watch as well _ but it was all about the characters?'"
Comedy is new to Fanning, 22, who literally cut her teeth in films like "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and "Daddy Day Care."
"That did take a bit of getting used to for me of getting into the rhythm and of course, the delicious writing, and it's all there and you just have to say it," she says.
"For me, sometimes I want to stretch things out. I'm like, 'All right, I want to take a pause here and say this speech and really (slow down.)' And it's like, OK, let's just speed it up and say it really quick. And it always works so much better that way ... And also I had to learn, I think, with comedy also not to feel embarrassed. I've learned so much in the process of this in bringing my walls down and going for it a bit more," Fanning says.
The Australian McNamara, who earned an Academy Award nomination for his screenplay "The Favourite," says, "I think when I started, the reason I wanted to do it was because basically I knew one thing about Catherine the Great, which was maybe she fornicated with a horse. And then I also found out everything about her."
What he discovered, he says, is that history's impression of her is skewed. "She went to a country she didn't even know. She took it over. She started female education. She kept the Enlightenment alive. She invented the roller coaster. I was, like, well that's the story. And it also seemed a contemporary story because the received wisdom about her is a terrible lie and defines who everyone saw her as. But she was this quite incredible woman. So that seemed like a fascinating story to tell for us. But I also didn't want to get bogged down in all the detail ...
"And what I've talked about is finding really specific things we wanted to deal with that she did. And (I planned to) get to the true essence of those massive things that she did, but not get bogged down in all the really small detail so that it gets sort of boringly historical."
He thinks hers is actually a contemporary tale. "It's like who are these people when they wake up? On one level, she's Catherine the Great who marries Peter the Great and that's a big story," he says.
"On another level that's quite contemporary it's about a woman who marries the wrong person and then has to go, 'What do I do? Do I kill him?' And that seemed a contemporary question."
McNamara doesn't apologize for veering off the truth. "As long as I feel like we're truly telling a version of her story that is historically accurate here and there, and there's certain sort of tent poles that we try and hit ... It isn't a perfectly historically accurate document. That's not what we're trying to do. Other shows have done that, and that's not what we're trying to do," he says.
While much of the series is McNamara's invention, some of it is actually right on, he says. "There's also lots of details that are completely strange that turn out to be true. Like odd methods of contraception and odd methods of pregnancy testing that are so bizarre you think we made them up, but they're all kind of accurate. It's peppered with lots of detail that is true, and then how we tell the story is of our own making."
'HIGHTOWN' CUTS TO THE CHASE
Starz is going to walk on the wild side Sunday when "Hightown" hits the network. The story takes place in Cape Cod, but it's not the ritzy conclave we all think of when we hear that name. It's gritty and graphic, populated by thugs and helmed by a lesbian cop who battles a serious drug habit.
Written by Rebecca Cutter and directed by Rachel Morrison, the show has an aggressive masculine feel to it, almost as though it were written by Kurt Sutter ("Sons of Anarchy.")
But Cutter explains how she managed to squeeze some dialogue in between the four-letter words. "I grew up reading those Boston crime novels: Robert B. Parker, Dennis Lehane. And that sort of talk-tough guy, ball-breaking language is what I love and what I think is interesting," she says.
"But I think it is from a female perspective. It's just we haven't really seen very many women inhabiting those worlds. But I think I write it from a very female perspective in that I'm always conscious of taking care of the women in that world."
Morrison agrees, "We made a very conscious choice to depict a lot of the violence off-screen, actually, which maybe would be different from a male perspective. I'm not sure. At least for the first two episodes and hopefully that was carried out, but a lot of it is left to the audience to kind of imagine," she says.
MONARCHS GET THE ONCE-OVER
The Smithsonian Channel has renewed its steamy little series, "The Private Lives of the Monarchs" for another season and it returns Sunday skewering Napoleon Bonaparte. The little Italian who rose from nothing to being the self-proclaimed emperor of France provides a provocative tale in itself. But he also enjoyed a lifelong love affair with a woman six years his senior, whom he divorced when she did not produce a child. But he never forgot her. Bonaparte died in ignominy exiled on the island of St. Helena at 51.
On May 24 the subject will be Edward VIII, who abdicated the British throne for a skinny divorced American socialite, throwing the royal succession into a maelstrom of confusion. Later the couple was pals with Adolf Hitler, another dart in the heart of the British Empire.
KITCHEN GROUCH IS SOFTY AT HOME
Tubi is offering 300 hours of grumpy chef Gordon Ramsay with his shows, "Hell's Kitchen," "Kitchen Nightmares" and "The F Word."
Along with those, Tubi has begun streaming seasons one and two of "Gordon Ramsay's 24 Hours to Hell and Back." The show is currently airing on Fox, and Tubi will echo each episode at least a week after it graces Fox.
Though he's known for his bluster in the kitchen, Ramsay says he's not really the tyrant he seems on TV when he's home with his wife, Tana.
"I have an amazing wife and four children you know. I don't act or perform like that when things go wrong with a Sunday lunch at home _ when Tana's roast potatoes are stuck to the tray or the Yorkshire puddings haven't risen. I get a little bit impatient sometimes when I'm watching Tana, you know, chop a shallot," he admits.
"Of course, I want to jump in there and do it myself because I'm starving, and I want to move things on a little bit quicker.
"So we don't have appetizers, entrees and desserts in our house. We have one course, and dessert is a treat, and going out is special. So, no, there's two sides to Gordon Ramsay," he said.
Two sides? Ramsay amends that a little. "Yes, I am a hard ass, driven, self-confessed perfectionist, but in a domestic scene, I want to have excitement with that journey as well."
