Marc Munden (“Utopia”) and Fernando Meirelles (“The Two Popes”) have been set to direct episodes of the drama series adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Sympathizer”.
The series will be an espionage thriller and cross-culture satire about the struggles of a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist spy during the final days of the Vietnam War and his resulting exile in the United States.
Meirelles will direct episode 4, whilst Munden will direct episodes 5, 6 and 7. They join “Oldboy” director Park Chan-wook who is on board as co-showrunner, along with Don McKellar, and will direct at least one of the initial episodes.
Robert Downey Jr. is set to play multiple supporting roles as the main antagonists across the series – all representing a different arm of the American establishment.
Sandra Oh, Kieu Chinh, Ky Duyen, Hoa Xuande, Fred Nguyen Khan, Toan Le, Vy Le and Alan Trong star, whilst three more have joined the cast as of today – Duy Nguyen, Kayli Tran and VyVy Nguyen.
Park, McKellar, Downey, Susan Downey, Niv Fichman, Kim Ly, Ron Schmidt, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Jisun Back and Amanda Burrell all executive produce.
The series – a co-production between HBO, A24 and Rhombus Media – is currently in production with filming in Los Angeles and Thailand ahead of a release either later this year or, more likely, in 2024 on HBO.
Source: Deadline
