Fellow Travelers, a series based on the Thomas Mallon novel and co-produced by Matt Bomer, starring and exec, has been greenlit by Showtime.
The network has ordered the eight-part limited series, which will be created and directed by Ron Nyswaner, the Academy Award-nominated Philadelphia-based writer who also served as co-executive producer on Showtime’s Ray Donovan.
Fremantle, the company behind American Gods and The Mosquito Coast, is co-producing with Showtime. Daniel Minahan, who has directed Halston and American Crime Story: Versace, will perform and direct the first two episodes. Robbie Rogers (All American) is also executive producer.
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Fellow Travelers is a love story and political thriller that chronicles the fickle romance of two very different men who meet in the shadow of McCarthy-era Washington. Bomer will play the handsome, charismatic Hawkins Fuller, who pursues a financially rewarding career in politics behind the scenes. Hawkins avoids emotional entanglements – until he meets Tim Laughlin, a young man full of idealism and religious belief. They begin a romance just as Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn are declaring war on “subversives and sexual deviants,” ushering in one of the darkest periods in 20th-century American history. Over the course of four decades, Hawk and Tim cross paths through the Vietnam War protests of the 1960s, the drug-fueled disco hedonism of the 1970s, and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s while confronting obstacles in the world and within themselves.
It’s the latest role for Bomer, who was nominated for an Emmy for his role as a secretive writer on The Normal Heart, about the rise of the AIDS crisis in New York. He currently stars in HBO Max’s Doom Patrol and is best known for his role in White Collar. Other credits include The Sinner, The Boys in the Band and the Magic Mike franchise. He will appear alongside Bradley Cooper in the Netflix limited series Echoes and in the feature film Maestro.
The series will go into production in Toronto in July.
“A compelling and deeply moving exploration of character and American life in the second half of the last century, Fellow Travelers sheds unprecedented light on stories that are as relevant today as ever,” said Jana Winograde, President of Entertainment at Showtime Networks . “The series takes us straight into an inside world of Washington fraught with national ramifications while highlighting the intimate moments that are deeply personal and often heartbreaking. We are thrilled that Ron, Matt, Robbie and Daniel are taking us on this exciting and romantic journey.”