Golden Globe nominee and Emmy winner Jeff Daniels (The Newsroom, The Squid and the Whale, Godless) will be starring in and executive producing Rust, the straight-to-series adaptation for Showtime. The series is based on the novel American Rust by Philipp Meyer.
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Rust is a compelling family drama that will explore the tattered American dream through the eyes of the complicated and compromised chief of police Del Harris (Daniels) in a Rust Belt town in southwest Pennsylvania. When the woman he truly loves sees her son accused of murder, Harris is forced to decide what he’s willing to do to protect him.
“Jeff Daniels is a bona fide giant on stage and screen, and Dan Futterman is a special writer and we couldn’t be more thrilled to have them together at Showtime,” said Gary Levine, co-president of entertainment at Showtime. “With vibrant characters caught in an unpredictable murder mystery, Rust will tell the relevant and touching human story of the corrosion of the American dream.”
A series adaptation of the book was scrapped by USA Network after the channel had picked it up for a straight-to-series order in 2017. The new iteration for Showtime will have multiple episodes written by Oscar nominee Dan Futterman (The Looming Tower, Capote) who is also serving as executive producer alongside Michael De Luca and Elisa Ellis of Platform One.
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Daniels is arguably best known for his roles in the TV series The Newsroom, Godless, and The Looming Tower, and for his role as Harry in the Dumb and Dumber movies. His other recent projects include Guest Artist, The Catcher Was a Spy, Allegiant, The Martian, and Steve Jobs.