Jessica Chastain is replacing Michelle Williams in HBO's Scenes From a Marriage
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Jessica Chastain is reteaming with her Juilliard classmate Oscar Isaac to bring a marriage to life.
On Friday, HBO announced that Chastain is replacing the previously announced Michelle Williams in the new limited series Scenes From a Marriage. EW has learned that Williams exited the project over scheduling conflicts.
Scenes From a Marriage is the American version of Ingmar Bergman's 1973 television miniseries of the same name. The original series starred Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson in the roles now taken up by Chastain and Isaac. The HBO adaptation will be written, directed, and executive produced by The Affair co-creator Hagai Levi.
The series reexamines the show's iconic depiction of love, hatred, desire, monogamy, marriage, and divorce through the lens of a contemporary American couple.
Chastain is also joining Isaac in an executive producing role, alongside Levi, Michael Ellenberg, Lars Blomgren, Bergman's son Daniel, and Blair Breard.
For Isaac, it's a return to HBO after starring in the 2015 drama Show Me a Hero. It's also a chance for Isaac and Chastain to reunite after starring as husband and wife in 2014's award-nominated A Most Violent Year.
The two previously joined EW, alongside other actors Michael Urie, Kevin Kline, and Anthony Mackie, for a roundtable about a new documentary, Creating a Character: The Moni Yakim Legacy, celebrating their former Juilliard instructor, Moni Yakim. Chastain and Isaac spoke warmly of Yakim's techniques and how it's given them useful tools they still use in their work today.
"One little thing can ignite Moni's imagination," Isaac told EW. "The eyes, the observation that you see... and that ignites your passion. For me, that's been incredibly important, especially on those bigger movies, because it's so easy to lose your curiosity in those situations and to take those things for granted and to feel like there's not room for that."
Further details, including when production might begin, are still to come.
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