Steve Carell's The Patient has added Domhnall Gleeson for the series from The Americans creator Joe Weisberg and writer and producer Joel Fields. The Patient has also added Succession and Lodge 49 star Linda Emond, This Is Us alum Laura Niemi, and Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist star Andrew Leeds and begins production this week.
Carell is playing Alexander Strauss, a psychotherapist who is being held prisoner by a serial killer (Gleeson). Alexander begins to unpack the mind of the man keeping him captive and thus explores his own trauma and past. He's being held captive to help this killer curb his homicidal urges. But in doing so, he opens up sides of Alexander that might prove dangerous for his captivity. Especially since Alexander recently lost his wife and has yet to unpack the grief and loss there.
The Americans alum Chris Long will be executive producing the show as well as directing the first two episodes along with Kevin Bray, who directed episodes of Insecure and The Americans, and Gwyneth Horder-Payton, who recently directed Pam & Tommy. The series will span 10 episodes from FX Productions and Weisberg and Fields are also writing and executive producing the series with Carell, Caroline Moore, Victor Hsu, and Long.
While both Carell and Gleeson have done darker things (with Carell getting an Oscar nomination for his work in Foxcatcher), it is a bit of a departure from what they both typically lean towards. Carell is arguably most famous for his work as Michael Scott in the long-running comedy The Office and Gleeson was recently in the HBO comedy series Run after his portrayal of General Hux in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. It will be exciting to see how these two play against each other in a much darker story.
The Patient sounds fascinating and we know both Carell and Gleeson have the chops to bring these characters to life, especially with such a stacked cast and creative team. There is currently no release date for The Patient.