Jeff Daniels to Star in Showtime’s Forthcoming Series Rust

With a straight-to-series order from Showtime on the forthcoming drama Rust, actor Jeff Daniels has been slated to lead the series, per THR.

The series is based on Philipp Meyers’ novel American Rust, and follows Del Harris (portrayed by Daniels), the police chief of a town in Pennsylvania. After the son of the woman Harris loves is accused of murder, the police chief must choose how far he’ll go to protect the man.

Oscar-nominated writer Dan Futterman (Foxcatcher) is set to write multiple episodes of the series, as well as executive produce the show. Michael De Luca and Elisa Ellis will executive produce, as well.

“Jeff Daniels is a bona fide giant on stage and screen, and Dan Futterman is a special writer and we couldn’t be more thrilled to have them together at Showtime,” Gary Levine, Showtime Entertainment co-president, said, per THR. “With vibrant characters caught in an unpredictable murder mystery, Rust will tell the relevant and touching human story of the corrosion of the American dream.”

The show was originally ordered to appear on the USA Network in 2017, but the project was scrapped after they couldn’t find a lead actor. De Luca and Ellis were paired with that project, as well, and were brought onto the Showtime series after the switch. Brian McGreevy and Lee Shipman were penning the script for USA, but are not attached to the Showtime series.

Most recently, Daniels has starred in the 2019 film Guest Artist. Otherwise, The Newsroom actor has recently appeared in Hulu’s The Looming Tower, Netflix’s Godless and Ben Lewin’s The Catcher Was a Spy with Paul Rudd.