Franklin (Michael Douglas plays Benjamin Franklin)

Looks very good! Especially if you're a fan of Douglas!

It does look good! I love Douglas in just about everything he's done (Wonder Boys is one of my top favorite movies of all time), so I'll be zeroing in on this, for sure.

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I also adored the HBO miniseries John Adams, for similar reasons (excellent acting and casting and great attention to detail in the writing and ambiance), so this is right up my alley! I rewatch John Adams every summer around Independence Day.

Awesome, but pisses me off it's on AppleTV+! So much promising stuff that doesn't get released for theaters!

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This is a mini-series, it wouldn't get released in theaters no matter who was streaming it.

Oh.

Paul Giamatti was good casting for Adams (they were both short, stocky and not what most people would define as "handsome"). I agree, it was a great series - even inspired me to read the biography it was based on... and I'm not one for biographies.

But Douglass as Franklin strikes me as strange casting at first glance. Just because Douglass is physically ectomorphic (tall, thin, etc.) - the very opposite of the more endomorphic Franklin.

Maybe it's a Multiverse take on Franklin

Very good.
Come to think of it, James Earl Jones would make an excellent Franklin!

I can definitely agree with this assessment since I kept thinking, "Franklin wasn't that thin and he had less hair."

But somehow I have a gut feeling that Douglas will make it shine anyway. He's *that* good.

Oh, and yes, I read the John Adams biography due to the series, too. My first David McCullough history book (he's a Pittsburgh native), and I've bought and read many of his books since then. He makes history come alive!

Questionable streaming in lieu of Apple, here I come! Major Michael Douglas fan here, and it looks like he's going a little out of type. Never saw him take on a historical figure with a classical accent before, and he looks like he's killing it in the trailer.

Watching episode 1 right now... Will report back (without spoilers)!

Respect for the craft!

Interesting. Being also a history geek, I've never quite been able to figure out what some of those historic figures would sound like if they spoke. They're usually oil paintings on walls. Franklin might (or might not) have a mid-Atlantic accent, but that can have considerable variation today, not to mention that you'd have to go back to the 1700's and figure out what it might have been then, before all of the later immigrant influences arrived.

Probably not. Race was an even bigger barrier in Franklin's time than it is today. Someone would have made note of that. Also, nothing suggests that Franklin had that big, booming voice.

Of course, (thus the emoji).

But as to Franklin's voice, I imagine to be a member of Congress (before there were any microphones) and an international diplomat, Franklin would have had to been able to project his voice as well as anyone else in such a position (especially to contend & converse with the likes of John Adams).

Personally, I loved the deep, rich and resonant voice of actor Howard da Silva who played Franklin in the movie musical 1776 (1972).

And if his voice alone wasn't enough...

I remember reading in one of their biographies (don't remember which) a story where Adams and Franklin had to share a room overnight.
They got into an argument about having the window open while they slept - one felt the cool night air was the key to good health and the other felt that it would lead to illness like pneumonia. (But I don't remember which one argued which position.)