From Atticus Finch To James Comey: Jeff Daniels To Play Ex-FBI Director In CBS Studios Event Mini – Deadline

Jeff Daniels will essential particular person as ragged FBI director James Comey in a four-hour CBS Studios match miniseries in retaining with A Elevated Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership, Comey’s New York Times No. 1 bestselling e book. The seventh director of the FBI, Comey served from 2013-17, and his e book coated his role in serving to to interchange the Bush administration’s policies on torture and digital surveillance to overseeing the Hillary Clinton electronic mail investigation as correctly as that you just may perhaps well also take into account ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, and sooner than that his tenure as a prosecutor of terrorists, mobsters and Martha Stewart. Clearly, a large section of the account and heart of attention of the mini is his irritable relationship with and eventual firing by President Donald Trump.

Filming begins in November and an airdate will be announced later. It’s also aloof to be decided whether the shrimp series will air on Showtime, CBS All Access or doubtlessly both.

Billy Ray, who scripted the nonfiction films Captain Phillips, Shattered Glass and the upcoming Clint Eastwood-directed Richard Jewell, tailored the e book and can unprejudiced teach the mini. Alex Kurtzman, Shane Salerno and Heather Kadin are the manager producers. The mini is produced by Secret Hideout, The Story Factory and Dwelling Bustle Productions in affiliation with CBS Television Studios.

Daniels is set to total 52 straight weeks with out lacking a performance on Broadway of To End a Mockingbird, Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Harper Lee unusual for which Daniels used to be nominated for 3 Tony Awards for his portrayal as Atticus Finch, the prison decent who defends a gloomy man accused of raping a white lady in Depression-technology Alabama. Mockingbird has established itself because the very best likely-grossing American play in Broadway historical past. Daniels has twice gained Emmys: Simplest Lead Actor for The Newsroom and most lately Simplest Supporting Actor for Godless.

“Jeff is so excellent for this section. Gigantic actor, instant integrity, rather a lot of heat, intelligence, complexity and gravitas,” Ray acknowledged. “We talked leisurely the scenes after I saw him in To End a Mockingbird on Broadway, and I knew I used to be the handiest one that also can play Jim Comey. Fortunate for me, he acknowledged yes.”

After CBS Television Studios gained an public sale for Comey’s e book, Ray spent a year meeting Comey and his family, journalists, FBI agents and govt officers from either side of the aisle to researching and offers an very unprejudiced correct hearing to the mini. Comey’s a challenge which, while an early tumultuous match within the Trump White Dwelling, looks fully connected within the firings and scandals which own engulfed the administration.

The e book’s title refers back to the unflagging non-public loyalty Comey claims Trump demanded of him over the Michael Flynn investigation, and when he didn’t gain it, the president fired Comey from the finish FBI put up. Comey has acknowledged Trump expressed to him frustration over the investigation into that you just may perhaps well also take into account Russian collusion and over the FBI’s unwillingness to prosecute Hillary Clinton for her handling of emails. Clinton has acknowledged that Comey’s resolution to reopen an FBI inquiry into Clinton’s non-public emails rapidly sooner than the 2016 election used to be a necessary component in serving to Trump eliminate an upset victory in 2016.

A Elevated Loyalty has sold better than 2 million copies. Daniels is represented by ICM Companions and Martino Administration.