Wolf Hall Miniseries, Starring Tony Winner Mark Rylance, to Be Broadcast on PBS

It’s shaping up to be a busy six months for Mark Rylance: After ending his Broadway engagement as the star of both Twelfth Night and Richard III, the two-time Tony Award winner will begin filming the previously announced miniseries adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s bestselling historical novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. According to The New York Times, PBS’s Masterpiece will broadcast the miniseries in 2015.

Rylance will play Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall, which is set during the reign of Henry VIII. Featuring a script by Peter Straughan (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and directed by Peter Kosminsky, the series follows Cromwell’s rise from the son of a blacksmith to right-hand man to the King. No other casting has been announced.

A Best Actor Tony winner for Boeing-Boeing and Jerusalem, Rylance most recently starred and co-directed the new play Nice Fish at the Guthrie Theatre and directed Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones in a London revival of Much Ado About Nothing. Richard III and Twelfth Night begin previews on October 15 at the Belasco Theatre and open on November 10, directed by Tim Carroll.