Muhammad Ali Series in Development at Peacock

An eight-part event series about boxing icon Muhammad Ali is in development at Peacock.

The series, titled “Excellence: 8 Fights”, hails from Oscar-winning writer Kevin Willmott (“BlacKkKlansman,” “Da 5 Bloods”) and is based on Jonathan Eig’s definitive biography “Ali: A Life”.

 “Bridgerton” breakout Regé-Jean Page and Morgan Freeman are both on board as executive producers, as well as Willmott, Lori McCreary for Revelations Entertainment, and Emily Brown. Eig will serve as a producer, with CBS Studios and UCP.

“Excellence: 8 Fights” chronicles eight distinct and defining moments in the iconic life of Muhammad Ali. 

Each episode will depict one fight from Ali’s life, but the essence of the episode, what it’s really about, is the internal fight – the drama outside the ring – where the viewers will explore the struggle going on in the heart and mind of one of the most consequential and controversial figures of the 20th century.

The project is announced at the heels of the 52nd anniversary of the first Ali-Frazier fight, which took place on March 8, 1971. 

It has been a longtime passion project for Revelations and a priority for CBS Studios, where the company is based. They teamed to acquire Eig’s book shortly after it was published in October 2017 and set out to develop it as an event series. 

A different version of the project with writer Dan Kay landed at CBS All Access in a competitive situation in the spring of 2018. The pitch since has been revamped, with Willmott joining as a writer/executive producer and Page as executive producer.