Leo Tolstoy's WAR AND PEACE Heading to The BBC

Are TV viewers ready to make a long-term committment to Leo Tolstoy's classic tome, WAR AND PEACE? The BBC is hoping so. According to Variety, the network is planning a small screen adaptation of the book which will air as a six-part series.

'House of Cards' Emmy-winning writer Andrew Davies will adapt Tolstoy's novel into six one-hour episodes set to air in 2015. Faith Penhale, head of drama at BBC, will executive produce the historic drama.

Davies describes the novel as, "a thrilling, funny and heartbreaking story of love, war and family life. The characters are so natural and human and easy to identify with, and Natasha Rostova just beats Lizzy Bennet as the most lovable heroine in literature."

Ben Stephenson, the BBC's head of drama commented in a recent speech, "I want to make BBC drama a cultural institution - a touchstone for quality and modernity with all the excitement and glamour of a curtain going up."

Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published his novel in 1869. The work is Epic in scale and is regarded as one of the most important works of world literature. It is considered Tolstoy's finest literary achievement, along with his other major prose work Anna Karenina (1873-1877).