Michael Douglas fights for the future of the United States as the Founding Father Ben Franklin in the trailer to Franklin.
Douglas, 79, leads the new series, which is based on the book A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America by Pulitzer Prize winner Stacy Schiff.
In the clip, the Academy Award winner is seen portraying Franklin’s mission overseas to convince France to underwrite America’s experiment in democracy.
Taking place in 1776, Franklin was accompanied by his grandson, Temple Franklin — played by Noah Jupe — in his efforts to champion the American Revolution.
“The Congress has sent me here as a representative of the United States to elicit France in our war against England,” he says in the trailer. “America requires men, money and arms. Without your aid, the United States will end before it has begun.”
His journey is met with challenges from dealing with spies, traitors and affairs as some lives are on the line.
“Diplomacy must never be a siege, but a seduction,” Franklin says in the clip.
A press release from the streaming service says the eight episode series will see “Franklin outmaneuvered British spies, French informers and hostile colleagues, all while engineering the Franco-American alliance of 1778 and the final peace treaty with England of 1783.”
“The eight-year French mission stands as Franklin’s most vital service to his country, without America would not have won the Revolution,” the release adds.
Franklin, also starring Jeanne Balibar, Marc Duret, Ludivine Sagnier, John Hollingworth, Thibault de Montalembert, Daniel Mays, Assaad Bouab, Eddie Marsan and Théodore Pellerin, is set to premiere April 12 on AppleTV+.
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