Claire Danes is taking on the lead role in Apple’s drama series The Essex Serpent.
The former Homeland star takes over for Keira Knightley, who was cast in the project last year but later dropped out, citing concerns around a rise in coronavirus cases in the U.K.
The Essex Serpent is based on an award-winning novel by Sarah Perry. Danes will play Cora, a recently widowed woman who, having been released from an abusive marriage, relocates from Victorian London to the small village of Aldwinter in Essex. There she becomes intrigued by a local superstition that a mythical creature known as the Essex Serpent has returned to the area.
Anna Symon (Mrs. Wilson) is adapting Perry’s book and will serve as lead writer on the project, and Clio Barnard (The Selfish Giant, Dark River) will direct. Both are executive producing alongside Jamie Laurenson, Hakan Kousetta, Patrick Walters, Iain Canning and Emile Sherman. Andrea Cornwell produces.
(Excerpt) Read more in: The Hollywood Reporter