Spiderman star Tom Holland has reportedly been cast in the Apple TV Plus anthology series ‘The Crowded Room’, with mental illness being touted as its central theme. The show will ostensibly be an anthology series that will explore the true and inspirational stories of those who have struggled, and learned to successfully live with, mental illness.
The first season featuring Tom Holland is said to be based on the award-winning biography ‘The Minds of Billy Milligan’ written by Daniel Keyes and will consist of 10 episodes. Holland has been roped in to play the titular character of Billy Milligan, who was the first person to be acquitted of a major crime by pleading Multiple Personality Disorder (now called Dissociated Identity Disorder).
The subject matter of ‘The Crowded Room’ has reputedly been under the consideration of Hollywood A-listers for quite some time. Earlier, ‘Titanic’ director James Cameron showed an interest in helming the project. Besides Cameron, directors David Fincher and Joel Schumacher were also said to have been briefly associated with the project.
Moreover, accomplished actors like Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Matthew McConaughey, and Sean Penn were being considered to essay Milligan’s complex character. Also, ‘The Departed’ actor Leonardo Di Caprio was said to have had a long-standing inclination to star in the project.
It is noteworthy that this is not the first time that on-screen content is being based on a serious mental disorder. In fact, we have been treated with some fine films made on the subject. These include M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Split’ (starring James McAvoy), ‘Primal Fear’ (starring Richard Gere and Edward Norton) and some more films, whose names we cannot disclose because they used the mental disorder as a plot device to deliver startling climactic revelations.
‘The Crowded Room’ is slated to be written for the screen by the highly adept screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, whose earlier work includes Ron Howard’s ‘The Beautiful Mind’ starring Russel Crowe, for which Goldsman had won both the Academy Award and Golden Globes Award for the best screenplay.
Besides, Goldsman also weaved his magic in acclaimed films like ‘I Robot’ (starring Will Smith), boxing film ‘Cinderella Man’ (starring Russel Crowe), ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and ‘Angels and Demons’ (both starring Tom Hanks) and the stylish zombie flick ‘I Am Legend’.
While Tom Holland was last seen in the recently released film ‘Cherry’, which was directed by the Russo brothers, who had previously directed Holland in blockbuster films ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ and ‘Avengers: Endgame’.
Holland’s upcoming film ‘Uncharted’, targeted for a 2022 release, is an action-adventure film that is an on-screen adaptation of a popular PlayStation video game of the same name.
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