Rufus Sewell to Star in ABC’s Richard LaGravenese Drama

ABC’s Richard LaGravenese drama has cast its leading man.

Parade’s End’s and Pillars of the Earth’s Rufus Sewell will star in the untitled drama from the scribe behind Beautiful Creatures, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.  

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Set in New York City, the drama revolves around the love and rivalry between two equally matched, powerful socialites who play out their obsessive attraction to and seduction of each other through their manipulation of others.

Sewell will play Philip Fitzgerald Julien, an imposing, confident and smart bisexual man who is a master manipulator and adept at seduction and deceit. His cynical world view creates a reality for him that protects a heart that loved once too strongly and refuses to be hurt again. He finds art in destroying and unmasking the lies behind society’s elite and powerful with his skills of deceit and sexual expertise. He agrees to assist his ex-lover Margot — his only equal and the one who broke his heart — in her campaign to annihilate her rich pig of an ex-husband, Anderson Cole. Philip plans to seduce the virginal, naive Cecelia Karelle — an ingenue who is Anderson’s current fiancee, but who is certain to topple happily into Philip’s experienced (though memorably cold-blooded) arms.

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The English actor’s TV credits include Parade’s End, Restless, BBC’s Zen and Eleventh Hour; on the feature side, he’s had roles in A Knight’s Tale, The Illusionist and Tristan and Isolde. He’s repped by WME, Julian Belfrage Associates and Parseghian Planco.

LaGravenese will pen the script and executive produce the ABC Studios pilot alongside Erwin Stoff, Ilene Staple and Wren Arthur. Taylor Hackford will direct the pilot, which will film in New York.

Email: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com
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