Brendan Gleeson will play President Donald Trump in a CBS Studios miniseries based on former FBI Director James Comey’s book A Higher Loyalty. Born in Ireland, Gleeson played Alastor Moody in the Harry Potter films. His film work also includes Braveheart, Michael Collins and Cold Mountain. He’s in the cast on Audience Network’s Mr. Mercedes.
Jeff Daniels will play Comey.
Production on the four-hour series, as yet untitled, is slated to begin in November. The series will air on Showtime or CBS All Access, or perhaps both. The air date has not been announced.
Billy Ray adapted the book and will be directing the miniseries, which is executive produced by Alex Kurtzman, Shane Salerno and Heather Kadin.
“It’s hard to imagine a bigger acting challenge than playing Donald Trump. You have to have presence, and a singular kind of dynamism,” said Ray. “You also have to have the courage and the will to play Trump’s psychology from the inside out. Oh, and you have to be spectacularly talented and watchable. Not many actors check all those boxes. Brendan does. I’m ecstatic about this.”
The miniseries will be produced by Secret Hideout, The Story Factory and Home Run Productions in association with CBS Television Studios.
