Chris Noth (The Good Wife, Sex in the City) and Keisha Castle-Hughes (Game of Thrones) have signed on to Discovery Channel’s drama series, Manifesto. Noth and Castle-Hughes join Paul Bettany (Captain America: Civil War, Priest) and Sam Worthington (Avatar, Hacksaw Ridge, Everest) who were previously announced to star in the scripted series about the FBI’s hunt for the Unabomber.
Worthington will play Ted Kaczynski (aka the Unabomber), and Worthington is confirmed for the role of FBI Agent Jim ‘Fitz’ Fitzgerald, who was instrumental in taking Kaczynski down. Noth joins the cast as Don Ackerman, the head of the FBI’s Bay Area, and Castle-Hughes will star as an agent who partners with Fitzgerald.
Manifesto marks the first lead roles on a U.S. television series for both Paul Bettany and Sam Worthington.
The series will begin filming in Atlanta on January 30th. Greg Yaitanes (Banshee) is the showrunner, executive producer, and director. Manifesto is being produced by Lionsgate and Trigger Street Productions, with Kevin Spacey, Dana Brunetti, John Goldwyn, and Troy Searer executive producing. The real Jim Fitzgerald is involved as a consulting producer.
Noth’s credits include Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Tyrant, Titanic: Blood and Steel, Caesar, Exiled, The Perfect Man, and The Confession. Castle-Hughes starred in Roadies, Whale Rider, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, The Nativity Story, Hey, Hey It’s Esther Blueburger, A Heavenly Vintage, Vampire, Red Dog, and Queen Of Carthage.
The Plot: Manifesto will trace how Jim “Fitz” Fitzgerald challenged the “old school” ways with his radical new approach to intelligence gathering. Fitzgerald had training as a profiler, but it was his focus on linguistics that became vital to breaking the case. He believed that the key to unlocking the true identity of the Unabomber would be found in the language of The Manifesto, a detailed account of some of Kaczynski’s plots.
