Apple announced today that it’s placed a straight-to-series order for Dickinson, a show that will star Hailee Steinfeld as poet Emily Dickinson.

Steinfeld is an actress and singer who was Oscar-nominated for her performance in True Grit and more recently performed in Pitch Perfect 2 and 3. Dickinson, meanwhile, is generally considered one of the great American poets, but given her reputation as an eccentric recluse, her life doesn’t seem to be the stuff of great drama (a recent biopic was called A Quiet Passion).

It sounds like this won’t be a standard biography, however — Dickinson is being billed as a coming-of-age story with a modern sensibility and tone.

The series will be written and executive produced by Alena Smith, who previously wrote for The Affair and The Newsroom. And it will be directed and executive produced by David Gordon Green, best known for directing comedies like Pineapple Express and episodes of HBO’s Vice Principals (though he’s also directed non-comedic films like the recent biopic Stronger).

Dickinson joins a varied list of original series in development at Apple, ranging from a reboot of Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories, to a Reese Witherspoon- and Jennifer Anniston-starring series set in the world of morning TV and an adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation books. Apple reportedly plans to launch the first shows in this new lineup (presumably as part of a new subscription service) next March.

Source: techcrunch