According to Deadline, legendary actor Donald Sutherland has joined HBO’s upcoming limited series adaptation The Undoing, based on Jean Hanff Korelitz ‘s psychological thriller novel You Should Have Known. The series stars Nicole Kidman (Big Little Lies) and Hugh Grant, with Susanne Bier to helm all six episodes from a script written by David E. Kelley.
Sutherland has, of course, led a remarkable career that dates back to 1962, and features roles in classic films such as The Dirty Dozen, MASH, Kelly’s Heroes, Animal House, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, JFK, and Backdraft, among others. More recently he played a pivotal role in the popular Hunger Games series, and the TV series Trust.
The actor will play Franklin Renner, father to Kidman’s character, according to the report, a retired financier who must protect his family when “turbulent revelations” threaten to destroy his home.
The Undoing is the story of Grace Sachs (Kidman), who is a successful therapist with a book on the way, a good marriage and a son in a private school in New York City. “Weeks before her book is published, a chasm opens in her life: a violent death, a missing husband, and, in the place of a man Grace thought she knew, only a chain of terrible revelations. Left behind in the wake of a spreading and very public disaster, and horrified by the ways in which she has failed to heed her own advice, Grace must dismantle one life and create another for her child and herself.”
Kelley will executive produce The Undoing through David E. Kelley Productions and will serve as the showrunner. Kidman will also executive produce with Per Saari for Blossom Films with Bruna Papandrea for Made Up Stories. The site reports that, though there isn’t a set episode count, it will likely be close to Big Little Lies, which had seven episodes in season 1.
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