Scarlett Johansson is headed to the small screen in her first major role in a TV series. The 29-year-old actress landed the lead role in a limited, eight-episode series based on Edith Wharton's 1913 novel The Custom of the Country.
According to Deadline, Johansson will play main character Undine Spragg, a young woman from the Midwest determined to become one of New York City's hottest socialites. She will also serve as producer and British playwright/screenwriter Christopher Hampton will write the series from his original screenplay.
Reportedly, Hampton had penned a script almost two decades ago for actress Michelle Pfeiffer. According to the book's description, Custom of the Country "is a scathing novel of ambition featuring one of the most ruthless heroines in literature. Undine Spragg is as unscrupulous as she is magnetically beautiful. Her rise to the top of New York's high society from the nouveau riche provides a provocative commentary on the upwardly mobile and the aspirations that eventually cause their ruin."
Besides the new TV gig, Johansson is also planning her wedding to fiancé Romain Dauriac. The two have been engaged since September 2013 and they welcomed their first child together last month, a baby girl named Rose Dorothy Dauriac.
