William Hurt, Holly Hunter to Star in Lifetime/History's 'Bonnie and Clyde'

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William Hurt and Holly Hunter

Lifetime's Bonnie and Clyde has found two of its four leads.

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William Hurt and Holly Hunter, who starred together in the 1987 feature Broadcast News, have been tapped to co-star in the miniseries from Smash's Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Hurt will play Frank Hamer, a Texas Ranger known for his involvement in tracking and killing 1930s outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. He's a tough cop who was involved in nearly 100 gunfights throughout his career and was wounded and left for dead multiple times.

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Hunter will play Emma Parker, the mother of Bonnie and her two siblings. Emma's husband died when Bonnie was 4, leaving the mother to move the children to a Dallas suburb where she found work as seamstress.

The title roles, played by Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty in the Oscar-nominated 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, have not yet been cast. Miley Cyrus was attached to play Bonnie in the project but dropped out.

The Lifetime/History project, the first of its kind to air on both AETN networks, is being produced by Smash EPs Meron and Zadan, who are set up at Sony Pictures Television.

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Hurt, whose credits include features The Host, The Incredible Hulk, Into the Wild and TV's Damages, is repped by ICM Partners. He earned a best actor Oscar for Kiss of the Spider Woman.

Oscar winner Hunter's (The Piano) most recent small-screen credits include Saving Grace Sundance Channel's upcoming Top of the Lake. She's with ICM Partners, Management 360 and Ziffren Brittenham.

Email: Lesley.Goldberg@thr.com; Twitter: @Snoodit