Showtime’s New Pilot Drama ‘Billions’: Everything To Know, Damien Lewis And Paul Giamatti To Lead The Pilot
"Homeland" star and Emmy winning actor Damien Lewis returns to Showtime for another lead role in a pilot series "Billions." Playing alongside Oscar nominee Paul Giamatti and "Sons of Anarchy" actress Maggie Siff, Lewis is scheduled to headline the Wall Street drama series as he explores the complicated world of high finance and everything that comes with it.
"Billed as a "complex, contemporary drama," the pilot is "a fictional drama that focuses on the collision and, at times, collusion between an aggressive U.S. attorney in New York and some of the richest hedge fund billionaires in the country," according to The Wrap.
Lewis will play as Bobby "Axe" Axelrod, an ambitious hedge fund king who will go head to head with Giamatti's character, a whip-smart U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhodes. Far from her role as biker chick in "Sons of Anarchy," Siff will play as Rhodes' wife Wendy, a highly trained psychiatrist who works as a performance coach with the most powerful and influential people in the finance world.
Lewis and Giamatti's casting is set to narrow the awards gap between Showtime and rival network HBO. Written and executive produced by Brian Koppelman and David Levien ("Rounders") with financial journalist Andres Ross Sorkin ("Squawk Box's"), the pilot show will be filmed in New York in earl 2015 to be directed by "Divergent" director Neil Burger.
The pilot's order comes after the network is planning to add more dramas such as "Penny Dreadful" and "The Affair" to its long list of shows. If "Billions" pick up after its pilot, it will join the ranks of "Homeland," "Ray Donovan" and "Masters of Sex."
One of the latest Wall Street-themed projects, the show follows the success of Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio's "The Wolf of Wall Street" to compete with CBS and Fox Television Studios upcoming Wall Street drama. Still untitled, the CBS show is penned by "Justified's" Taylor Elmore Now while Fox is adapting Kevin Roose's best-selling novel "Young Money."
Meanwhile, British actor Damien Lewis was recently awarded an OBE by the Duke of Cambridge and was completely "stupefied" for being nominated. The actor also revealed that Prince William and wife Kate Middleton are huge fans of "Homeland" where he plays as a prisoner of war Marine Sergeant Nicholas Brody.