by Nellie Andreeva – Deadline Hollywood
Hugh Grant has been cast opposite Nicole Kidman in The Undoing, HBO’s high-profile six-episode limited series, written by David E. Kelley and directed by Susanne Bier.
An adaptation of Jean Hanff Korelitz’s book You Should Have Known, The Undoing centers on Grace Sachs (Kidman), who is living the only life she ever wanted for herself. She’s a successful therapist, has a devoted husband (Grant) and young son who attends an elite private school in New York City. Overnight 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.
Grant’s Jonathan Sachs is an acclaimed pediatric oncologist, devoted husband to Grace Sachs (Kidman) and doting father, whose past undergoes scrutiny when he suddenly disappears, leading to a chain of terrible revelations. This marks the British actor’s first major role in a U.S. television production.
Kelley executive produces The Undoing through David E. Kelley Prods. and serves as showrunner. Bier executive produces and will direct all episodes. Kidman executive produces with Per Saari through their Blossom Films alongside Bruna Papandrea via Made Up Stories.
Grant is coming off a starring turn as British party leader Jeremy Thorpe in the BBC/Amazon miniseries, A Very English Scandal. Earlier this year, he starred in StudioCanal/Warner Bros.’ boxoffice hit Paddington 2. Grant, who won a BAFTA and a Golden Globe for Four Weddings and a Funeral, is repped by CAA.