VARIETY .. FEBRUARY 19TH 2019 ..

Joan and Jackie Collins TV series coming from 'Stan & Ollie' producer..

By Stewart Clarke | Variety

The colorful lives of movie star Joan Collins and her bestselling novelist sister, Jackie, will be dramatized in a TV series. Sony-backed Fable Pictures, the British film and TV producer behind “Stan & Ollie,” will make the series, having secured the TV rights to the Collinses’ story.

The series, which has the working title “Joan & Jackie,” will trace the sisters’ journeys from postwar London to Hollywood stardom as Alexis Carrington in “Dynasty” and literary fame as the author of “Lady Boss,” respectively. No broadcaster or platform is officially attached yet, but Sony Pictures Television will take the six-part show out internationally.

“I am delighted that such a prestigious team wants to tell our story, and I know my sister Jackie would be as excited as I am to be involved,” Joan Collins said.

Jackie died in 2015, but her daughters have given their approval to the series. “Our mother always told us when we were growing up that ‘Girls can do anything!’ and ‘Joan & Jackie’ will fabulously depict how true that is,” they said in a statement.

Award-winning playwright Penelope Skinner (“The Village Bike,” “Linda”) will pen the series. “I am thrilled to be working on the fascinating story of these fabulous, iconic and powerful women,” she said. “There is far more to Joan and Jackie than diamonds and shoulder pads. These are two very special sisters whose lives are both aspirational and inspirational.”

The actresses who will play the glamorous go-getting sisters who helped define the 1980s has yet to be confirmed, but Nina Gold (“The Crown”) is attached.

Executive producers include Caroline Harvey, who was previously head of development at Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack’s production company, Mirage Enterprises. Faye Ward (“The Crown”), Hannah Farrell (“Suffragette”) and Sally Greene (“Billy Elliot the Musical”) will also exec produce.