Monday, June 16, 2008

William Hurt joins the cast of 'Damages'

Hot off the press releases:
LOS ANGELES, June 16, 2008 – Academy Award winning actor William Hurt will join the cast of FX’s Golden Globe award winning series Damages for its second season, which is scheduled to return to the network in early 2009, announced Nick Grad, Executive Vice President of Original Programming, FX Networks.

Production of season two starts on June 24th in New York. Damages is produced by Sony Pictures Television (SPT) and FX Productions.

Hurt joins Damages for a season-long arc as a new client of Patty Hewes (Glenn Close). Details of Hurt's character are being kept under wraps, but insiders have intimated that Hurt's character will not only share a professional past with Hewes, but a personal one as well.
The release later, in a passage discussing all the actors from season one, says "(Glenn) Close, (Rose) Byrne and (Tate) Donovan all return for season two."

I wasn't a fan of "Damages" season one, as I didn't like Byrne's character and felt the show tried too hard to keep pulling the rug out from under the audience at the expense of solid characterization and storytelling, but I know a lot of other people liked it, and Hurt is a good get for them.

11 comments:

Eric said...

Any chance we'll see guest appearances from Kevin Kline, Meg Tilly or Jeff Goldblum?

Alan Sepinwall said...

Any chance we'll see guest appearances from Kevin Kline, Meg Tilly or Jeff Goldblum?

(Slaps forehead at failing to make the obvious "Big Chill" connection.)

Maybe they can get Kevin Costner to play this year's murder victim -- only they'd have to show the body this time around.

Toby O'B said...

The best pairing of Glenn Close and William Hurt was during the monologue when she hosted 'Saturday Night Live'. He came out to say a few "kind" words about his friend.

If I remember correctly, he said he'd never be caught doing TV.....

K J Gillenwater said...

I *loved* Damages...so this news is spectacular for me! I can hardly wait until 2009! I only wish that it would have come back later in the summer, as it was high-quality summer tv viewing.

Thanks for the news, Alan!

Anonymous said...

Hmm, as of now they still don't seem to have any adversarial lawyer character set up. I gotta think they plan on using Garret Dillahunt's character for that since he showed for the final four episodes last season and basically did nothing. Either that or they completely wasted him.

R.A. Porter said...

Dang. So close.

If only that press release had said:
"Close and Donovan return for season two. We left Byrne adrift on a melting iceberg in the Arctic sea."

Nah. I'm kidding. I don't wish global warming-induced drowning on the girl. I just wish she hadn't been on this show, looking so much like a deer caught in the headlights with that roster of talent around her.

I shouldn't blame her though. Just another foreign girl trying to make good while struggling to maintain an American accent.

Anonymous said...

Any chance we'll see guest appearances from Kevin Kline, Meg Tilly or Jeff Goldblum?

(Slaps forehead at failing to make the obvious "Big Chill" connection.)


Heh. Until I saw this comment, I was searching my memory banks trying to remember if these two had ever worked together. My brain kept getting stuck on Kathleen Turner.

I liked this show a lot, once you accepted that all the plot twists, and a good showcase for Glenn Close, were the point of the show.
No word on Danson?

K J Gillenwater said...

Adversarial lawyer set up?? Did you not watch last season? Rose Byrne's character *is* the adversarial lawyer! Someone within her own ranks.

I can hardly wait!

Matt said...

Well. Byrne's character is working with the feds to bust Patty Hewes, but we also have to assume that there'll be another case with another opposing counsel--I think that's what's meant by "adversarial lawyer," though the Zap2It release indicates he's Patty's "client

Yes, the show's gleefully implausible, but the performances from Close, Danson, and Ivanek in particular were spectacular.

Adam said...

It took all of one line in A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE to place William Hurt high in my all-time favorites list:

How do you fuck that up?

Dayenu. And then there's BROADCAST NEWS ...

Mapeel said...

RE: Garret Dillahunt:

I happened upon HBO rerunning the first episode of Deadwood over the weekend. Dazzling, again. Sigh.