Hollywood star Russell Crowe has been roped in to play Fox News founder and chairman Roger Ailes in a new miniseries for Showtime, the network has announced. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the series, which will run for eight episodes, is based the reporting by journalist and Ailes biographer Gabriel Sherman, who wrote, "The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News -- and Divided a Country."

Sherman, who interviewed more than 600 people for his book, co-wrote the pilot alongside Tom McCarthy. The project is being executive produced by Emmy winner Jason Blum and is a co-production between Showtime and Blum's Blumhouse Television.