Piers Morgan to produce Starz drama about tabloid journalism

Starz is developing period drama, "Fleet Street," about tabloid journalism with Piers Morgan -- former editor of tabloids The Sun, News of the World and Daily Mirror -- attached to executive produce, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The series is set in 1970s England during the rise of tabloid journalism, "an industry where every single opponent worked in the same street, competing with each other by day -- drinking, brawling, fornicating, night clubbing and cocaine-snorting with each other by night," Morgan wrote in a statement.

"It was the dawn of the celebrity era, in all its gruesome detail -- a revolution that changed pop culture, and the relationship between the press and politicians, royals and stars. Fleet Street in the '70s was a hotbed of scoops, shagging, flairs and devastating world that was also unbelievably exciting."

BAFTA-winning screenwriter Danny Brocklehurst (U.K.'s "Shameless") will pen the pilot and executive produce. Starz will work on the series with Lionsgate Televsion in conjunction with Richard Branson's Virgin Produced and Octagon Entertainment.

"When Piers told me about his unbelievable experiences in the competitive world of newspapers on Fleet Street and about the characters that influenced him, I couldn't imagine a better or more compelling series," Said Octagon managing director John Ferriter. "Sex, drugs, rock and roll, love and scoops -- Fleet Street will have them all."