“Homeland” star Damian Lewis has signed on to play Henry VIII opposite Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell in PBS’s much-anticipated adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s “Wolf Hall.”
The six-part miniseries is a Company Pictures and Playground co-production for BBC Two and Masterpiece in association with BBC Worldwide.
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Lewis (pictured in “Homeland”) won an Emmy and Golden Globe for his role as Sgt. Nicholas Brody during his three seasons on Showtime’s terrorism drama.
BAFTA-winning director Peter Kosminsky (“White Oleander”) will direct “Wolf Hall,” which follows the meteoric rise of Cromwell in the Tudor court. The blacksmith’s son became Henry VIII’s closest adviser.
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Claire Foy (“Little Dorrit”) will play the calculating and ambitious Anne Boleyn in the miniseries, written by Peter Straughan (“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”).
“I love it when an author, such as Hilary Mantel, does her research and discovers an original understanding of a very familiar piece of history. Even during our rehearsals her detailed imagination of the world of Thomas Cromwell is alive in Peter Straughan‘s ingenious and faithful adaptation,” said Rylance.
Filming has begun in the southwest of England for broadcast in 2015 on Masterpiece on PBS and BBC2.