Game of Thrones actor Carice van Houten and The Crown star Lesley Manville have boarded the upcoming TV adaptation of Dangerous Liaisons.
Emmy-nominated actress van Houten, who played priestess Melisandre in HBO’s Thrones, will play a “pious noblewoman” named Jacqueline de Montrachet in the Starz series, who will have “a mysterious connection” to the story, Entertainment Weekly reports.
Also joining the cast is Manville, who is taking on the role of Princess Margaret in seasons five and six of Netflix drama The Crown, while Pennyworth star Paloma Faith is also among the cast.
A flurry of other casting announcements were also made this week, with Mary Poppins Returns actor Nathanael Saleh, Godzilla vs Kong’s Hakeem Kae-Kazim and Game of Thrones star Michael McElhatton among the names added to the cast.
The series is being led by Ratched star Alice Englert and Utopia’s Nicholas Denton, who will play the lovers at the centre of the plot.
Dangerous Liaisons will be an adaptation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ 1782 novel Les Liaisons dangereuses, which tells the story of narcissistic rivals and former lovers the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont. The pair use seduction as a weapon in order to control and manipulate those around them, while boasting to each other about their cruel games.
The book was previously adapted into a movie starring Glenn Close, John Malkovich and Michelle Pfeiffer in 1988, and it also inspired 1999 high-school movie Cruel Intentions, which starred Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon and Selma Blair.
The new TV adaptation will be written by Call the Midwife writer Harriet Warner, while The Pale Horse director Leonora Lonsdale will direct the first four episodes.
Dangerous Liaisons will air on Starz.
Source: digitalspy.com