Academy Award winner Frances McDormand (Fargo, North Country) and Academy Award nominee Richard Jenkins (The Visitor, The Cabin in the Woods) are set to star in the HBO Miniseries drama “Olive Kitteridge,” a film by Academy Award-nominated director Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right, Laurel Canyon). Based on Elizabeth Strout’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name and written by Emmy-winner Jane Anderson (“The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom,” “Normal”), the miniseries recently completed production in Massachusetts for debut later this year on HBO.
An HBO Miniseries presentation of a Playtone production in association with As Is, “Olive Kitteridge” is executive produced by Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman, Frances McDormand and Jane Anderson, and marks Hanks and Goeztman’s fifth miniseries with HBO under the Playtone banner, following the Emmy winners “The Pacific,” “John Adams,” “Band of Brothers” and “From the Earth to the Moon.” Other HBO/Playtone collaborations include the Emmy-winning HBO Films presentation Game Change, the series “Big Love” and a number of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame specials. Steven Shareshian co-executive produces.
The four-part drama tells the poignantly sweet, acerbically funny and devastatingly tragic story of a seemingly placid New England town wrought with illicit affairs, crime and tragedy, told through the lens of Olive (McDormand), whose wicked wit and harsh demeanor mask a warm but troubled heart and staunch moral center. Jenkins portrays Olive’s husband, Henry.
The supporting cast of “Olive Kitteridge” features Golden Globe winner Bill Murray (Lost in Translation) as Jack Kennison, a widower befriended by Olive; John Gallagher, Jr. (“The Newsroom”) as Christopher, Olive and Henry’s son; Emmy nominee Peter Mullan (“Top of the Lake”) as Jim O’Casey, a fellow teacher at Olive’s school; Rosemarie DeWitt (“Mad Men”) as Rachel Coulson, a shut-in who is one of Henry’s customers at the pharmacy; Zoe Kazan (Ruby Sparks) as Denise Thibodeau, who works at the pharmacy; and Ann Dowd (Side Effects) as Kitteridge family friend Bonnie.
“Olive Kitteridge” co-stars Broadway’s Cory Michael Smith (“Breakfast at Tiffany’s”) as Kevin Coulson, Olive’s former student; Jesse Plemons (“Breaking Bad”) as Jerry McCarthy, Henry’s delivery boy; Brady Corbet (Martha Marcy May Marlene) as Henry Thibodeau, Denise’s first husband; Audrey Marie Anderson (“The Unit”) as Ann, Christopher Kitteridge’s second wife; Patricia Kalember (“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”) as Joyce, Christopher’s mother-in-law; and Maryann Urbano (“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”) as Jack’s wife, Mrs. Kennison.
The behind-the-scenes team includes Golden Globe-nominated composer Carter Burwell (Where the Wild Things Are), editor Jeffrey M. Werner, A.C.E. (The Kids Are All Right), Emmy-nominated director of photography Frederick Elmes, ASC (“In the Gloaming”), production designer Julie Berghoff (The Kids Are All Right), costume designer Jenny Eagan (True Grit) and Emmy(R)-winning casting director Laura Rosenthal, CSA (HBO’s “Mildred Pierce”).
