As first confirmed exclusively on Production Intelligence in July, Hera Pictures is working on Mary & George, a Sky Original/AMC Networks period drama about Mary Villiers, to shoot from January.

Julianne Moore stars in the series, which is based on the true story of Villiers, who moulded her beautiful son, George, to seduce King James I and become his all-powerful lover. Through outrageous scheming, the pair rose from humble beginnings to become the richest, most titled, and influential mother and son England had ever seen.

Mary & George is produced by Hera Pictures in association with Sky Studios and is written by playwright DC Moore (Killing Eve, Temple), inspired by the non-fiction book “The King”s Assassin” by Benjamin Woolley. The lead director is Oliver Hermanus.

Julianne Moore said: “Mary Villiers was a woman who through her own actions rose to become a powerful and influential figure in Jacobean London. It”s a daunting but exhilarating challenge to bring her to life on screen.”

Liza Marshall, executive producer for Hera Pictures, added: “The incredible Julianne Moore is our dream casting for Mary – a woman who was damned by her contemporaries but was always the smartest person in the room. Indomitable women like Mary have too often been written out of history but with DC Moore”s brilliant scripts and Oliver Hermanus at the helm, we will reclaim her story to make a truly unique, unmissable show.”

DC Moore remarked: “Since I first read about Mary Villiers” life – and all she achieved with her son, George – I”ve been obsessed with bringing this story to the screen.

“Between King James” often-overlooked love and lust for men, Mary”s extraordinary rise as a woman in a man”s world, and George”s (many, many) sexual and political conquests, this is a profoundly rich, and, as yet entirely untold on screen, story, about a pair of ‘commoners” who conquered all before them.”