FX announced Friday that Billy Bob Thornton will star in the network's "Fargo" miniseries, which will debut in the spring.
"I'm going to be bold and say it will do justice to the Coen brothers' film which is one of my favorite movies of all time," FX president John Landgraf said at the Television Critics Association press tour Friday.
Thornton will play Lorne Malvo, "a rootless, manipulative man who meets a small town insurance salesman and sets him on a path of destruction," according to a release from FX.
The 10-episode miniseries, which follows the consequences of a new crime, has been adapted by Noah Hawley ("The Unusuals"), and "Fargo" filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen are among its executive producers. There is a female law-enforcement character in the miniseries, but she'll be "a young deputy in her early 20s," Landgraf added.
"It's hard to describe how remarkably true it is to the movie," Landgraf said of the project.
He noted that the Coen brothers had asked to give notes on Hawley's script and "they sent back half a dozen pages with just a few dialogue suggestions," Landgraf said. "They really thought Noah's script captured the tone of the film."
"Fargo," a co-production from FX and MGM Television, begins production this fall.
