Jeff Daniels is returning to television.
Deadline reports that Daniels is set to star in The Looming Tower alongside Tahar Rahim. Hulu gave the one-hour drama a straight-to-series order and comes from Oscar-nominated Dan Futterman (Capote, Foxcatcher, In Treatment) and Oscar- and Emmy-winning documentarian Alex Gibney (Going Clear, Sinatra: All or Nothing At All).
The Looming Tower, based on Lawrence Wright’s Pulitzer Prize-winning exposé, focuses on how the clashes between the CIA and the FBI may have inadvertently had a major impact on 9/11 and the Iraq war. The show will center on New York FBI Counter-Terrorism chief John O’Neill (Daniels) and his young FBI agent protégé Ali Soufan (Rahim). The two have to deal with a lack of support from other government agencies as they investigate a possible Al-Qaeda threat.
Daniels’ most recent stint on television was on the HBO/Aaron Sorkin series The Newsroom playing anchor Will McAvoy, a part that earned Daniels an Emmy win and multiple Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. Daniels also has a Western limited series, Godless, coming to Netflix with Scoot McNairy and Jack O’Connell.
Wright, Futterman and Gibney will executive produce the series. It is scheduled to premiere on Hulu sometime this year.