"Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner has signed up French star Isabelle Huppert for his new epic, "The Romanoffs".

Huppert's agent told AFP Monday that the veteran actress, who was nominated for an Oscar last year for "Elle", "was going to appear" in the $50-million (42.4-million-euro) series about people who believe they are descended from the Russian imperial family.

"Mad Men" stalwarts Christina Hendricks and John Slattery have also joined the cast, although Weiner was tight-lipped on whether he would be using them to reprise the on-screen chemistry of on-off lovers Joan Holloway and Roger Sterling.

Weiner has described the contemporary stories as more an "anthology" than a conventional series, with each of the eight hour-long episode telling a stand alone story.

The first is due to screen on Amazon's streaming service late next spring, he said.

Swiss actress Marthe Keller, best known for "Marathan Man", is also on board.

Huppert has only ever appeared in one US TV show, "Law and Order".

The Romanov dynasty ruled Russia from 1613 until Nicholas II was forced to abdicate in March 1917 in the first of two revolutions that rocked the vast country that year.

Members of the immediate imperial family were later executed by Bolshevik revolutionaries.

Royalist feeling is enjoying something of a revival in Russia as the centenary of the October revolution nears, with a poll earlier this year finding nearly half the population had a positive opinion of the last tsar.

Source: AFP