Patrick Dempsey is making his return to television with a starring role in a new EPIX miniseries.
It was announced Tuesday that production has begun on “The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair,” a 10-part adaptation of the European novel of the same name by Joël Dicker.
Dempsey, who hasn’t starred on TV since he left his long-running role on “Grey’s Anatomy” in 2015, will star as Harry Quebert, an author who is arrested for murder after the body of a 15-year-old girl who’s been missing for over 30 years.
Ben Schnetzer, who recently starred in the “Snowden” biopic and in “Warcraft,” will play Marcus Goldman, Quebert’s longtime mentee who travels to Quebert’s home in coastal Maine to cure his writer’s block. After his mentor is arrested, he begins to investigate the cold case, which eventually becomes the subject of his next book.
Rounding out the cast is Damon Wayans Jr., who plays Sgt. Perry Gahalowood, a Maine State Police investigator who is looking into the teen’s death, and Virginia Madsen as Tamara Quinn, an owner of a local diner who knows more about Quebert than she lets on.
Other cast members include newcomer Kristine Froseth, Colm Feore, Josh Close, Matt Frewer, Connor Price, Tessa Mossey, Victoria Clark, Craig Eldridge, Kurt Fuller, Don Harvey, Felicia Shulman and Wayne Knight.
The book, published in 2012, has sold over two million copies worldwide and has been published in 25 languages.
Jean-Jaccques Annaud (“Seven Years in Tibet”) is set to make his television debut by directing every episode.
“‘The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair’ was the ideal project for my first American television venture,” Annaud said in a statement. “It is a rich and nuanced novel set in a small New-England town and has all the elements for a classic mystery.”
Lyn Greene and Richard Levine of “Masters of Sex” wrote the pilot script and several episodes.
The two writers, along with Annaud, are executive producing, along with Tarak Ben Ammar and Fabio Conversi. The series is being produced by MGM Television, Barbary Films and Eagle Pictures.