Claire Danes may not have gotten her full due for Fleishman Is In Trouble, but she’s still one of prestige television’s most esteemed stars. Having brought home multiple Emmy Awards for Homeland, an early entry in Peak TV’s peak, Danes is set to reteam with showrunner Howard Gordon on a new limited series, The Beast In Me. The series was created by The X-Files alum Gabe Rotter and is being produced by 20th Television for Netflix.
The synopsis (via Variety) reads, “Since the tragic death of her young son, acclaimed author Aggie Wiggs (Danes) has receded from public life, unable to write, a ghost of her former self. But she finds an unlikely subject for a new book when the house next door is bought by Nile Sheldon, a famed and formidable real estate mogul who was once the prime suspect in his wife’s disappearance. At once horrified and fascinated by this man, Aggie finds herself compulsively hunting for the truth—chasing his demons while fleeing her own—in a game of cat and mouse that might turn deadly.”
As enticing as the Homeland collab may be, there’s some even more surprising talent behind the scenes. Jodie Foster, who was reportedly once being courted to star in the show, is one of the executive producers, as well as Conan O’Brien and his Conaco partners Jeff Ross and David Kissinger. In an eyebrow-raising account of this show’s path to the screen, Deadline reports that Rotter couldn’t get any traction on the show until his team advised him to change the protagonist from a male to female character. Then when it still didn’t get traction, Rotter’s manager sent it over to his old associate Kissinger (who is, yeah, the son of that Kissinger). After Conaco joined, Kissinger passed the project along to “his college friend Foster” who agreed to produce and direct, but recommended Danes to star. (Foster will no longer direct due to scheduling conflicts, but she’s still an EP.)
From there, says Deadline, “The project went through a writers room and multiple incarnations, with the antagonist changing identities” until it became what sounds like an adaptation of The Jinx. Most television series probably have similarly complicated journeys to getting that green light, but you have to admit this one had some twists and turns! Nevertheless, Danes and Gordon have a proven track record of success with Homeland, so hopefully they can recapture the magic on this new project.
