Claire Foy to star in Facebook drama

Claire Foy will play Sheryl Sandberg in a new drama about Facebook.

The 37-year-old actress has signed up to play the organisation’s Chief Operating Officer in ‘Doomsday Tonight’, which will be based on Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang’s book, ‘An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination’, as well as their work for the New York Times and articles by Andrew Marantz for The New Yorker.

The drama will explore the relationship between the businesswoman and the social media platform’s co-founder and chairman, as well as the obstacles the site faced on its journey to global domination.

The TV series will also cover the 2016 presidential election which led to Donald Trump gaining power, as well as the rise of disinformation, how the company was made aware of the mental health risks Instagram has for younger users and how Facebook’s news feed has been manipulated to only feature articles that paint the platform positively.

‘Homeland Elegie’ author Ayad Akhta is writing the scrips and will also executive produce alongside Sheera and Cecilia, while Andrew will be a consultant on the project.

No further casting information has yet been announced.

The announcement of Claire’s casting comes just two months after her flashback appearance as the younger Queen Elizabeth in a scene from the fourth season of ‘The Crown’ won her the Guest Drama Actress accolade at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.

However, she wasn’t present at the Los Angeles ceremony to accept the honour, for which she beat off competition from Alexis Bledel and Mckenna Grace from ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, Sophie Okonedo from ‘Ratched’ and ‘This Is Us’ actress Phylicia Rashad.