Not long ago, HBO and super producer Scott Rudin hired Noah Baumbach to adapt and direct Jonathan Franzen's critically acclaimed novel The Corrections. Baumbach has a unique voice that often delves into the dysfunctionality of the modern American family which makes him more than well suited to co-adapt the Franzen's most celebrated work and winner of the National Book Award in 2001. To bring the complex family to life, the prestigious network has accumulated an absolutely incredible cast and two more excellent actors are now circling the project, namely, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Rhys Ifans.
The Daily Mail reports that Gyllenhaal and Ifans are in talks to join the already cast Oscar winners Chris Cooper and Diane Wiest as well as, the most underrated actor working today, Ewan McGregor. Cooper is set to play the juicy lead role of patriarch Alfred Lambert who suffers from Parkinson's-induced dementia with Dianne Wiest is in talks to play his wife, and the driving force of the novel, Enid. McGregor will play Chip, one of the troubled and failing Lambert children whose view of himself is a little distorted from his mooching, jobless and scheming actuality. And here's where Ifans comes in because, as things continue to crumble for Chip, he finds himself involved in a pyramid scheme with some Lithuanian gangsters, one of which, may be played by the The Amazing Spider-Man actor.
Maggie Gyllenhaal, on the other hand, is being sought to play a significantly bigger role as she's in talks to play one of the two yet to be cast Lambert children, Denise. The youngest of the three siblings (the oldest is Gary, a financial analyst and clinically depressed family man), Denise is a chef who puts herself in one horrible position after another, experiencing perhaps the biggest downward spiral of anyone in the novel. Again, another great part and thankfully they've found an actress with the chops to pull it off. More than just a tale of a family's woes, Katey elegantly described the novel's themes (in a previous post) and how The Corrections "seemed to capture everything about the malaise of late-90s America, from the generation gap between Greatest Generation-age parents and their overly entitled children to the diminished power of blue-collar workers."
These underlying thematic concerns should provide even more material for Baumbach if he finds the need to expand on source in order to produce the forty hours of television that they have planned. That's right, the article also finally explains the route that the HBO adaption will take, namely, four seasons of television consisting of 10 episodes a piece. Either way, with writer-director Noah Baumbach and this cast in place, the upcoming HBO series will definitely be a must watch and probably contend for every major award in existence. Finger's crossed.
The Corrections as described on the book sleeve,
After almost fifty years as a wife and mother, Enid Lambert is ready to have some fun. Unfortunately, her husband, Alfred, is losing his sanity to Parkinson's disease, and their children have long since flown the family nest to the catastrophes of their own lives. The oldest, Gary, a once-stable portfolio manager and family man, is trying to convince his wife and himself, despite clear signs to the contrary, that he is not clinically depressed. The middle child, Chip, has lost his seemingly secure academic job and is failing spectacularly at his new line of work. And Denise, the youngest, has escaped a disastrous marriage only to pour her youth and beauty down the drain of an affair with a married man-or so her mother fears. Desperate for some pleasure to look forward to, Enid has set her heart on an elusive goal: bringing her family together for one last Christmas at home.
