EXCLUSIVE: Steve Shill, who won a directing Emmy for his work on Season 4 finale of Dexter, has been tapped to direct the epic series All the Queen’s Men from a script written by Stewart Harcourt (Churchill’s Secret, Dexter). The series, which is being developed for Tayox TV and Ingenious Media, is based on historical novels The Wild Irish and The Queen’s Bastard by bestselling author Robin Maxwell.

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All the Queen’s Men has been described as a “action-packed, modern-feminist drama set during the imperialist British conquest of Old Ireland during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I” and focuses on the little-known, bitter rivalry between Queen Elizabeth I and Grace O’Malley, who was Queen of the Irish Rebellions. It chronicles their struggles to survive in a Machiavellian political world dominated by ruthless men and quixotic loyalties.

The project is on a course to shoot early in 2018. Shill, who also was nominated by the WGA for his writing on the critically acclaimed HBO series Deadwood, also will executive produce All the Queen’s Men.

Shill was one of the first directors and exec producers of NBC’s Dracula, Showtime’s The Tudors, ABC’s Missing, AMC’s Feed the Beast and the ABC/CBC/ProSeiben historical action miniseries Ben-Hur.

He also directed Idris Elba and Beyonce in Obsessed in 2009. That picture opened at No. 1 with $28.6M and ended up grossing $73M worldwide. His other directing credits include Blindspot, The Flash, Shameless, Rome, Deadwood, The Sopranos, Brotherhood, Big Love, The Wire, The Good Wife, Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., ER and The West Wing.