Jeff Daniels Will Star in Hulu's 9/11 Drama LOOMING TOWER
Jeff Daniels is set to star in an upcoming 9/11 series being developed at Hulu called The Looming Tower. The 10-episode drama is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, which "tracks the rising threat of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda and examines how the rivalry between the CIA and FBI may have inadvertently set the stage for the Sept. 11, 2001, tragedy as well as the subsequent war in Iraq."
Sounds like this is going to be an intense series that sparks some conversation. According to THR, Daniels will play John O'Neill, "the determined, bull-headed chief of the New York FBI’s Counter-Terrorism unit." The description goes on to say:
The character is rightly convinced that the U.S. has been targeted for attack by Al-Qaeda, and faces deliberately insufficient cooperation from other facets of the federal government, particularly from his counterpart at the frequently antagonistic CIA. A man of appetites, O’Neill is a lover of expensive food and drink, and is involved with at least two girlfriends, neither of whom know about his wife and children.
The series is being written by Dan Futterman (Foxcatcher, Capote), who is also an executive producer. The project is being developed through Legendary Television, and it's certainly going to make for a compelling series.
This seems like the perfect project for Daniels to take on. He's currently set to star in Steven Soderberg's Netflix series Godless, and is currently in production on the film The Catcher Was a Spy. Here's the description of the book that the series is based on:
A gripping narrative that spans five decades, The Looming Tower explains in unprecedented detail the growth of Islamic fundamentalism, the rise of al-Qaeda, and the intelligence failures that culminated in the attacks on the World Trade Center. Lawrence Wright re-creates firsthand the transformation of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri from incompetent and idealistic soldiers in Afghanistan to leaders of the most successful terrorist group in history. He follows FBI counterterrorism chief John O’Neill as he uncovers the emerging danger from al-Qaeda in the 1990s and struggles to track this new threat. Packed with new information and a deep historical perspective, The Looming Tower is the definitive history of the long road to September 11.