In Hollywood, more and more A-list stars are getting ready to shine on TV. Apart from Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Susan Sarandon, who have made their TV debuts this year, plenty of other stars and some directors are in the midst of signing deals to make a splash on the small screen.
Culturevulture
Rupert Grint, Hilary Swank and other A-list stars gear up for TV projects.
In Hollywood, more and more A-list stars are getting ready to shine on TV. Apart from Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Susan Sarandon, who have made their TV debuts this year, plenty of other stars and some directors are in the midst of signing deals to make a splash on the small screen.
A case in point is Oscar-winning filmmaker Alejandro G. Iñárritu, who has a ten-episode drama series in the pipeline. Having won consecutive Oscars for Birdman and The Revenant, Iñárritu’s series, The One Percent, will star Greg Kinnear (who was last seen in HBO’s Confirmation as Joe Biden) in the lead and will be shot at a farm in the Midwest. Oscar winning actress Hilary Swank is headlining the series.
According to Deadline, The One Percent “follows a broken family struggling to keep their farm from financial ruin, until a bizarre twist of fate changes their lives forever. Kinnear will play the downtrodden farmer, Swank plays his wife. Ed Harris, who had had conversations about playing the family patriarch, might do the role as a guest star if his schedule on HBO’s Westworld permits”.
Created and written by Iñárritu, Alexander Dinelaris Jr, Nicolás Giacobone and Armando Bo, the series could be delayed due to Iñárritu’s unique shooting style. Time will tell if it will create the same following as HBO’s star-studded Westworld. Additionally, actor J.K. Simmons, who won an Oscar for Birdman, will be seen in a series called Counterpart.
Also heading to TV later this month is Harry Potter alum Rupert Grint aka Ron Weasley in a show called Snatch, which is based on Guy Ritchie’s 2000 film of the same name and starred Jason Statham and Brad Pitt. Heading to Crackle, in the series, Grint will essay “the dynamic, frustratingly chaotic and utterly posh con man, Charlie Cavendish” while Gossip Girl star Ed Westwick, best known for playing Chuck Bass on the teen series will essay a “Cuban-born nightclub” proprietor Sonny Castillo. Snatch has a lot riding on it; Grint and Westwick haven’t found success since their claim-to-fame projects ended years ago.
“I don’t really approach work by looking backwards,” said Westwick recently. “What I’ve done is what I’ve done. I read the script and…it was like a match made in heaven, and I said ‘Sign me up, let’s do it! I felt like it was a good fit.”
Mission Impossible II star, Dougray Scott, will also feature in the series. And finally, later this month, a new series from FX starring Helen Hunt will make its debut. Titled Shots Fired, the drama series is about “racial tensions in a small North Carolina town” and will also feature stars like Richard Dreyfuss and Steven Moyer.
