James Gray has signed on to write and direct a television series based on J. Michael Lennon’s biography Norman Mailer: A Double Life, Deadline reports.
The show, Mailer, will be produced by Mailer Tuchman Media, a production company run by John Buffalo Mailer, an actor and Norman Mailer’s youngest son.
Lennon’s 2013 book told the life story of the controversial author, known for books including The Executioner’s Song and The Armies of the Night, as well as his 1960 conviction for stabbing his wife and his quixotic 1969 run for New York City mayor. A critic for Kirkus called Lennon’s biography “detailed and anecdotal without being gossipy (a yarn concerning a nicotine-addicted cat notwithstanding)and a must-read for students and admirers of Mailer’s work.”
Gray’s previous directing credits include the films Little Odessa, The Lost City of Z, and Ad Astra.
“It’s hard to come up with another individual whose voice meant more in his time than Norman Mailer’s—he chronicled humanity in all its outrageous and ugly glory through a lens that was uniquely his own,” Gray told Deadline. “I look forward to the exciting challenge of examining his wild legacy through this series.”
John Buffalo Mailer said the series would be “no-holds-barred” and “pull-no-punches.”
“As we examine this unique cultural moment we are experiencing today in America, looking back on how we got here through one of the most fascinating, prophetic, and controversial lenses of the 20th century will be an extraordinary tool in terms of understanding how far we have come, and how far we still have yet to go,” he said.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
