News: Dakota Fanning joins TNT's "The Alienist"

Dakota Fanning Joins TNT's The Alienist

Fanning to Star with Daniel Brühl and Luke Evans in

Drama Series Based on Caleb Carr's Bestseller,

Co-Produced by Paramount Television and Studio T

Dakota Fanning (American Pastoral) is set to star in TNT's The Alienist, the eagerly anticipated series based on the Anthony Award-winning New York Times bestseller by Caleb Carr. Playing Sara Howard, a headstrong secretary at Police Headquarters, Fanning joins recently cast Daniel Brühl (Rush, Inglorious Bastards,Captain America: Civil War), who stars as forensic psychologist Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, and Luke Evans (The Girl on The Train, The Hobbit trilogy), who will play reporter John Moore. The series will follow the three of them as they investigate a series of brutal murders in New York during the Gilded Age.

Slated to premiere in late 2017 on TNT, a division of Turner, The Alienistwill be directed and executive-produced by BAFTA-nominated director Jakob Verbruggen (Black Mirror). The series is a co-production of Paramount Television and Turner's Studio T. Emmy® winner Cary Fukunaga (True Detective), Academy Award® winner Eric Roth (Forrest Gump), Oscar® nominee Hossein Amini (Drive) and Anonymous Content's Steve Golinand Rosalie Swedlin all serve as executive producers. Production will begin in early 2017 in Budapest.

Based on the international best-selling novel by Caleb Carr, The Alienist is a psychological thriller set in the Gilded Age of New York City in 1896, a city of vast wealth, extreme poverty and technological innovation. When a series of haunting, gruesome murders of boy prostitutes grips the city, newly appointed police commissioner Theodore Roosevelt calls upon criminal psychologist (aka alienist) Dr. Laszlo Kreizler (Brühl) and newspaper reporter John Moore (Evans) to conduct the investigation in secret. They are aided by a makeshift crew of singular characters, among them the intrepid Sara Howard, a young secretary on Roosevelt's staff who is determined to become the first female police detective in New York City. Using the emerging disciplines of psychology and early forensic investigation techniques, this band of social outsiders tracks down one of New York City's first serial killers.

Fanning's character, the primly dressed but beautiful Sara Howard, is the first woman hired by the New York Police Department and she is determined to become the first female police detective in New York City. Self-possessed and intelligent, Sarah grew up as an only child who was doted on by her father. She not only "shakes hands like a man," but considers herself just as competent – if not more so – than any of the men on the force. Well-bred and well-spoken, Sara has a keen interest in crime-solving and is immediately intrigued by the case being investigated by Kreizler and Moore.

Fanning can currently be seen in the critically acclaimed, 1960s-set feature film American Pastoral, directed by and co-starring Ewan McGregor. Her recent credits include The Benefactor, with Richard Gere; The Runaways, with Kristen Stewart; Night Moves, with Jesse Eisenberg and Peter Sarsgaard; The Last of Robin Hood, with Susan Sarandon; and the blockbuster Twilight saga. She began her career as a child actress, turning in memorable performances in I Am Sam, opposite Sean Penn, and Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds, both of which earned her Critics Choice Awards. Her other credits include The Secret Life of Bees, Man on Fire, Charlotte's Web and Coraline, in which she provided the voice for the title character. In 2017, she will be seen in Please Stand By and Brimstone, followed in 2018 by roles in The Bell Jar and Ocean 9;s Eigh t.