Frances McDormand & Richard Jenkins to Star in 'Olive Kitteridge'

Academy Award winner Frances McDormand (Fargo, North Country) and Academy Award nominee Richard Jenkins (The Visitor, Six Feet Under) star in the four-part HBO Miniseries drama Olive Kitteridge, a film by Academy Award-nominated director Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right, Laurel Canyon). Based on Elizabeth Strout’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name and written by Emmy-winner Jane Anderson (The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom and Normal), the miniseries will debut on HBO this winter.

An HBO Miniseries presentation of a Playtone production in association with As Is, Olive Kitteridge is executive produced by Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman, Frances McDormand and Jane Anderson, and marks Hanks and Goeztman’s fifth miniseries with HBO under the Playtone banner, following the Emmy winners The Pacific, John Adams, Band of Brothers and From the Earth to the Moon. Other HBO/Playtone collaborations include the Emmy-winning HBO Films presentation Game Change, the series Big Love and a number of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame specials. Steven Shareshian co-executive produces.

Olive Kitteridge tells the poignantly sweet, acerbically funny and devastatingly tragic story of a seemingly placid New England town wrought with illicit affairs, crime and tragedy, told through the lens of Olive (Frances McDormand), whose wicked wit and harsh demeanor mask a warm but troubled heart and staunch moral center. Richard Jenkins portrays Olive’s husband, Henry.

The story, which spans 25 years over the four parts, focuses on Olive, a middle-school math teacher, and her relationships with Henry, the good-hearted town pharmacist, their son Christopher, who chafes at his mother’s parenting style, and other denizens of their community.

The supporting cast features Golden Globe winner Bill Murray (Lost in Translation) as Jack Kennison, a widower befriended by Olive; John Gallagher, Jr. (The Newsroom) as Christopher, Olive and Henry's son; Emmy nominee Peter Mullan (Top of the Lake) as Jim O'Casey, a fellow teacher at Olive's school; Rosemarie DeWitt (Mad Men) as Rachel Coulson, a shut-in who is one of Henry's customers at the pharmacy; Zoe Kazan (Ruby Sparks) as Denise Thibodeau, who works at the pharmacy; and Ann Dowd (Side Effects) as Bonnie, a Kitteridge family friend.

Olive Kitteridge co-stars Broadway's Cory Michael Smith (Breakfast at Tiffany's) as Kevin Coulson, Olive's former student; Jesse Plemons (Friday Night Lights) as Jerry McCarthy, Henry's delivery boy; Brady Corbet (Martha Marcy May Marlene) as Henry Thibodeau, Denise's first husband; Audrey Marie Anderson (The Unit) as Ann, Christopher Kitteridge's second wife; Patricia Kalember (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) as Joyce, Christopher's mother-in-law; and Maryann Urbano (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) as Mrs. Kennison, Jack's wife.

The behind-the-scenes team includes Golden Globe-nominated composer Carter Burwell (Where the Wild Things Are), editor Jeffrey M. Werner, A.C.E. (The Kids Are All Right), Emmy-nominated director of photography Frederick Elmes, ASC (In the Gloaming), production designer Julie Berghoff (The Kids Are All Right), costume designer Jenny Eagan (True Grit) and Emmy-winning casting director Laura Rosenthal, CSA (Mildred Pierce).