At the Tonys last night, perhaps the biggest winner of the night was “Gladiator” and “The Last Samurai” screenwriter John Logan, whose play “Red,” about the artist Mark Rothko swept the board, winning six awards, including Best Play. In a handy piece of serendipity, Deadline today has news on the casting of Logan’s new HBO series “Miraculous Year,” which goes behind the scenes on Broadway.
As we reported a little while ago, Kathryn Bigelow is executive producing the series and is set to direct the pilot of the show which follows a successful, self-destructive Broadway composer and lyricist, and his family. Deadline reports that a number of actors are now in talks to join the show which stars shooting next month. Broadway star Norbert Leo Butz (“Dan In Real Life”) would play Terry Segal, the composer, with Frank Langella as his father, a famous artist. Hope Davis is potentially in line to play his sister, a corporate lawyer who’s grown up in the shadow of her famous relatives, while Eddie Redmayne (who also won a Tony for “Red” last night) would play an actor in Segal’s new show who “will come to play a major part in Terry’s life” (we smell a love interest!). Patti LuPone will also play a possibly recurring role as a Broadway diva, which shouldn’t be a huge stretch.
Filming’s set to start in July, after Redmayne finishes his run in “Red,” so it shouldn’t clash with Steven Spielberg’s “War Horse,” which, as we reported last week, the British actor is close to signing on to lead — filming kicks off on that in August. It’s a hugely promising cast, and we’re looking forward to seeing what Bigelow does with something so far out of her usual, action-led material.