Apple has quickly made a name for themselves in the streaming world, and one of their most highly anticipated series is The Crowded Room. Coming off last week’s news that Amanda Seyfried had joined the show, the upcoming series has just added another cast member. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Emmy Rossum has joined star Tom Holland and Seyfried in the Apple and New Regency production.
Also, with this news comes the announcement Kornél Mundruczó, best known for the Oscar Nominated film Pieces of a Woman, will be directing all ten episodes of the first season along with serving as an executive producer. The show itself is being pegged as a “seasonal anthology” by Apple and it “will explore inspirational stories of those who have struggled, and learned to successfully live with, mental illness.” The first season, which is designed as a thriller, is based in part on writer/executive producer Akiva Goldsman’s own life while also being inspired by the award-winning biography The Minds of Billy Milligan by Daniel Keyes. Goldsman is probably best known for his Oscar winning screenplay for 2001’s Best Picture winner A Beautiful Mind, which dealt with similar subject matter to this upcoming series, but he has also written for films like The Dark Tower, Rings, and The Fifth Wave.
Rossum will play Danny Sullivan’s (Holland) mother, “who is always looking for a man to fulfill her dreams of salvation” while Seyfried will be playing a clinical psychologist “faced with the most challenging case of her career, who is also trying to balance her life as a single mother.” Executive producers for the series include Holland, Goldsman through his Weed Road banner, Suzanne Heathcote, Alexandra Milchan of EMJAG Productions, Arnon Milchan of New Regency, Yariv Milchan, and Michael Schaefer.
The Crowded Room appears to have all the pieces to be another hit for Apple and, with the new additions of Rossum and Mundruczó behind the camera, this series has a lot of potential. Mundruczó brought such a beautifully tragic rawness to Pieces of a Woman and one would expect the same authentic emotional core here. That film also had heavy themes of mental health, and as our modern day society tries to fight back the stigma of this sensitive topic, this anthology looks to further help in that department. For all the latest news on The Crowded Room, including a pending release date, stick with Collider.
via Collider