In this 1962 file photo, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, centre, poses with his brothers U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, left, and President John F. Kennedy at the White House in Washington. A new mini-series will focus on the relationship of Robert and John with their father, Joe. (File/Associated Press)

The History Channel has picked up a series about iconic American family the Kennedys that will be produced by Montreal-based Muse Entertainment.

The cable network says the eight-hour series, called The Kennedys, will be akin to The Godfather movie trilogy, told from a multigenerational point of view.

The project is the brainchild of 24 creator/executive producer Joel Surnow and is slated to begin shooting next spring, with an air date in 2011. No one has been cast yet.

The scripts were written by Stephen Kronish, a former co-executive producer of 24 and also a Kennedy scholar.

Kronish says he scoured public records and previous Kennedy documentaries to come up with some of the scenes. No members of the extensive Kennedy clan, nor their inner circle, have been interviewed.

He says the series will include a lot of private conversations and focus on John and Robert Kennedy, starting with the1960 presidential election of JFK and ending with the 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy.

"We're really trying to see them as people and to strip away some of the patina that has attached itself to them because of their early deaths and to show them, warts and all," Kronish told the Hollywood Reporter.

Kronish adds there will be flashbacks to the brothers' early years, but the core of the story will revolve around the pair's relationship to their father Joe, who will be portrayed as a manipulative egocentric who used his sons to live out his ambitions.

Some of the world events included in the saga will be the Cuban missile crisis, the civil rights movement and the invasion of the Bay of Pigs, orchestrated by then President Kennedy.