Katherine Heigl to play feminist icon Victoria Woodhull in new series

Katherine Heigl has signed on to play Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for U.S. president, in a new series.

Heigl will lead the cast of Woodhull and executive produce. The project will be based on multiple biographies, according to Deadline.

"The moment I discovered the almost too-big-to-be-true story of Victoria I have been enthralled and deeply invested in bringing her life story to the screen," Heigl told the publication.

Victoria Woodhull became the first woman to run for president as the leader of the Equal Rights Party in 1872. Her running mate was abolitionist leader Frederick Douglas.

The then-34-year-old feminist icon was the first woman to address the U.S. Congress and, alongside her sister, became the first woman to operate a brokerage firm on Wall Street. The sisters also founded a newspaper.

Heigl remarked: "Victoria’s outrageous courage, determination, intelligence and hutzpah would be remarkable in our modern times but was downright revolutionary in hers."

The Oakhurst Entertainment series will have no shortage of drama. Although later acquitted, Woodhull was accused of blackmail and prostitution, arrested and charged on the eve of the presidential election.

Heigl added: "(Woodhull's) name and her story has not been celebrated nearly enough for the trails she blazed and the paths she forged for all the women who came after her. I cannot wait to tell the story of this woman who would not be stopped in a time that forbade her to even start."