Starz has chosen Kenneth Lonergan—whose most recent film, Manchester By The Sea, has earned him a host of Oscar nominations, including Best Original Screenplay—to write an adaptation of E.M. Forster’s novel Howard’s End. The four-part miniseries, produced jointly with the BBC, would be Lonergan’s first television work. Meanwhile, Hettie Macdonald, whose credits include the fan-beloved Doctor Who episode “Blink,” will direct.
Forster’s class-conscious 1910 novel tracks the ownership of the eponymous country estate, a rural wonderland that acts as an allegorical stand-in for the whole of England. The book previously received a much-loved film version in 1992; Agent Carter’s Hayley Atwell will play Margaret Schlegel, the role that won Emma Thompson the Best Actress Oscar for that film. Ripper Street’s Matthew Macfadyen will play Anthony Hopkins’ character, stern British patriarch Henry Wilcox, while Tracey Ullman is also set to co-star.