If you’ve been keeping tabs on Steve McQueen following 12 Years a Slave, you should know that the director has signed on with HBO to produce a pilot called Codes of Conduct. This week, the potential drama cast two more big names, signing on both Helena Bonham Carter and Rebecca Hall.
Codes of Conduct will focus on uppercrust New York society, and it’s no surprise that Bonham Carter and Hall will both be a part of that high-end world. Bonham-Carter is expected to play a divorced mother in the series who wants to live life “on her own terms.” She’ll also have two grown children. According to Variety, Hall has signed on to play the daughter of a New York billionaire.
Helena Bonham Carter and Rebecca Hall aren’t the first names cast in Codes of Conduct. When HBO started moving forward with the drama project, we learned the drama would look into an African-American man living in New York City who enters the ranks of the city’s elite. McQueen spent roughly a year looking for the right individual to cast and this October he found him in Devon Terrell, a newcomer with no professional acting credits. Terrell will play Beverly Snow, a young man with a mysterious past who will spend time learning the ropes in high society. Paul Dano was also recently added to the project.
McQueen will be involved in a way that is similar to how Martin Scorses approaches his HBO projects, as he is working on a film project right now, as well. Steve McQueen will be executive producing the project and will also direct the pilot for HBO. (This is what Scorsese did with Boardwalk Empire and will do with the upcoming rock ‘n’ roll project.) McQueen will co-write with Matthew Michael Carnahan. Finally, Iain Canning, Carnahan, Emile Sherman and Russell Simmons will executive produce.
Hall and Bonham Carter are mostly known for movies roles, but this TV gig isn't hugely outside the box for either lady. Hall has recently appeared in Transcendence, Iron Man 3 and The Awaking, although she did appear in the Parade’s End miniseries a couple of years ago. Bonham Carter’s been in the biz a lot longer and often appears in husband Tim Burton’s films, including Big Fish, but she’s also taking a variety of film roles, including appearing in the Harry Potter movies and The King’s Speech. On TV, she also recently played Elizabeth Taylor in Lifetime’s Burton & Taylor.
Codes of Conduct, with its high-profile names, sounds like it could be a good fit for HBO. We’ll let you know if the show moves beyond the pilot phase and nabs a series order.
