Manifesto: Discovery Series Gets New Title, Additional Casting

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Discovery is changing things up with Manifesto. Today, the network announced Brian d’Arcy James, Elizabeth Reaser, and Trieste Kelly Dunn have joined the cast of the upcoming TV series, which is being retitled as Manhunt: The UNABOMer.

The scripted drama tells “the story of how FBI agent Jim “Fitz” Fitzgerald (Sam Worthington) deployed a radical approach to intelligence gathering to take down Ted Kaczynski (Paul Bettany), also known as the “Unabomber,” one of the most infamous criminal masterminds in the world. ” The cast includes Jane Lynch, Chris Noth, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Mark Duplass, Lynn Collins, Jeremy Bobb, Katja Herbers, and Brían F. O’Byrne.

Production on Manhunt: The UNABOMer began last month in Atlanta.

From Discovery Channel:

(LOS ANGELES and SANTA MONICA) – Discovery Channel announced that three-time Tony Award nominee Brian d’Arcy James (“Hamilton,” “Spotlight,” “13 Reasons Why”), Trieste Kelly Dunn (“Blindspot,” “Banshee”) and Elizabeth Reaser (“Mad Men” and “Young Adult”) have been cast in the network’s upcoming scripted series now titled “Manhunt: The UNABOMer,” formerly known as “Manifesto,” set to air this year. Produced by John Goldwyn, serving as consultant to Discovery, Lionsgate, Trigger Street Productions and Discovery Channel, the anthology series tells the story about the hunt for Ted Kaczynski, who terrified the nation with a letter bombing campaign in the 1980s and early 1990s. The new title reflects the name given by the original task force created by the FBI and ATF to investigate the “UNABOM” case, a combination of the words “University” and “Airline BOMber.”

The series will tell the story of how FBI agent Jim “Fitz” Fitzgerald (Sam Worthington, “Avatar,” “Hacksaw Ridge”) deployed a radical approach to intelligence gathering to take down Kaczynski, portrayed by Paul Bettany (“Gangster No. 1,” “Captain America: Civil War”). Emmy(R) Award-winning television producer and director Greg Yaitanes (“Quarry,” “Banshee”) will executive produce, direct and serve as showrunner. Andrew Sodroski, whose “Holland, Michigan” topped Hollywood’s famed Black List for screenplays in 2013, created the series and serves as an Executive Producer. Jim Fitzgerald will serve as Consulting Producer.

James will play ‘Henry Murray,’ a professor of Kaczynski’s at Harvard University, who convinced his young students to participate in mind control experiments supervised by the CIA. It’s believed that these sessions, which were psychologically brutal and lasted for almost a year, were responsible for effectively weaponizing Kaczynski. Dunn will play ‘Theresa Oakes,’ a librarian at the Lincoln Public Library in Montana, who befriended Kaczynski and engaged him to tutor her 11-year-old son in math; and Reaser will play the role of ‘Ellie,’ Jim Fitzgerald’s wife and the mother of their two children.”

What do you think? Are you interested in the story of “The Unabomber”? Will you watch Manhunt?