Cory Michael Smith to Join Frances McDormand in HBO Miniseries Olive Kitteridge

Did Lucky Guy star Tom Hanks make a side trip to Breakfast at Tiffany’s last spring? Cory Michael Smith, who played Fred opposite Emilia Clarke in the Broadway.com Audience Choice Award-winning play, has been tapped by producers Hanks, Gary Goetzman and Frances McDormand for a leading role in Olive Kitteridge, according to Deadline.com. HBO’s four-part miniseries adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Elizabeth Strout is scheduled to begin filming in September, with Tony winner McDormand in the title role.

Olive Kitteridge centers on a straight-talking woman whose harsh judgments don’t endear her to others in her small New England hometown. Smith has been cast as Kevin Coulson, an ex-student of Olive’s who returns home. Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins will play Olive’s husband, Henry. The four-hour miniseries features a script by Jane Anderson and will be directed by Lisa Chodolenko (The Kids Are All Right).

Smith is on a hot streak, having also been tapped to co-star with Twilight headliner Kristen Stewart in the forthcoming indie movie Camp X-Ray, in which they will play American soldiers at Guantanamo. He made his Broadway debut in Breakfast at Tiffany’s after off-Broadway performances in The Whale, Cock and The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World.