Netflix Prepping Royal Drama Series From Stephen Daldry, Peter Morgan

Netflix is prepping royal drama series The Crown.

The streaming service is near a deal with Sony Pictures Television for a series from Academy Award nominees Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost/Nixon) and Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot, The Hours) inspired by the play The Audience, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

The play, which bowed in 2013, centers on the weekly audiences given by Queen Elizabeth II to prime ministers that date back from her accession in 1952 to the present day. Helen Mirren starred as Queen Elizabeth II, marking her second time in the role after she won the Oscar for the part in Morgan’s 2006 feature The Queen.

Morgan and Daldry will reunite with Andy Harries (The Queen), to exec produce Left Bank’s The Crown alongside Robert Fox and Matthew Byam Shaw. All three produced Morgan’s The Audience.

Netflix and SPT declined comment.

PHOTOS: Broadcast TV’s New 2014-15 Shows

Morgan is a two-time Oscar nominee for adapting his play Frost/Nixon and penning the original screenplay for The Queen. The Audience adaptation would mark his first U.S. TV series, though his British drama The Jury was adapted stateside. He’s repped by CAA.

Daldry, who earned three Oscar noms for directing The Reader, The Hours and Billy Elliot, is also with CAA.

The Crown will join a rapidly growing roster of original scripted series at Netflix including Orange Is the New Black, House of Cards, Marco Polo, Grace and Frankie, Narcos, Sens8, Lilyhammer, Hemlock Grove, The Killing, Kyle Chandler‘s KZK family dramaand its upcoming Marvel slate, among others.

Email: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com
Twitter: @Snoodit