HBO has officially greenlit a six-hour miniseries about the famous Lewis and Clark expedition. The series will star Casey Affleck and Matthias Schoenaerts and it is backed by a group of Hollywood A-listers producing.
Affleck will play Meriwether Lewis while French actor Schoenaerts will star as William Clark. The two men were sent on a journey to explore the Louisiana Purchase territory after President Thomas Jefferson purchased the area from France. They journeyed all the way to the Pacific Ocean.
Lewis and Clark will be adapted from Undaunted Courage by Stephen E. Ambrose. John Curran (The Painted Veil) is directing. The writers include Curran, Michelle Ashford (The Pacific) and Edward Norton.
It will be produced by Tom Hanks’ Playtone, Brad Pitt’s Plan B and Class 5. The executive producers include Hanks, Pitt, Norton, Gary Goetzman, Dede Gardner, Tim Kelly and Adam Leipzig.
“In Lewis and Clark, we can see American idealism and the breathtaking natural beauty of the continent, as well as the complexities and tragedies of what came to be known as America’s ‘manifest destiny,’” HBO Programming president Michael Lombardo said in a statement. “We are tremendously excited to bring together this incredible group of talents to tell a seminal American story.”
Lewis & Clark will debut this summer.
Affleck was recently seen in Interstellar. Schoenaerts was recently seen in The Drop.
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