Dakota Fanning Set to Star in ‘The Alienist’

Dakota Fanning is making a switch to TV with a role in The Alienist.

The 22-year-old actress is taking a break from her movie career to star in her first major television series. Fanning will appear alongside Luke Evans and Daniel Bruhl in the three main roles in Jakob Verbruggen and Cary Fukunaga’s adaptation of Caleb Carr’s crime novel of the same name. The title of the story is a term for an individual who studies mental pathologies.

The plot is set in New York City in 1896 amidst a time of technological advances and a huge gap between rich and poor. Following the brutal murders of several young male prostitutes police commissioner Theodore Roosevelt – the future US President – hires criminal psychologist Dr. Laszlo Kreiszler (Bruhl) and newspaper reporter John Moore (Evans, by process of elimination) to secretly investigate the crimes.

Fanning is to play smart secretary Sara Howard, who is part of Roosevelt’s staff whose ultimate ambition is to become New York’s first female police detective and she becomes part of Kreiszler and Moore’s team. As well as investigating the murders, Kreiszler is also trying to come to terms with his own personal demons.

The Alienist is brought to the small screen by cable network TNT and Paramount Television and Studio T at a cost of $5 million-per-episode. Shooting is scheduled to start in the coming months in Budapest, Hungary, and is scheduled to air at the end of 2017.

As yet, Fanning has no movies due to hit cinemas this year but she will star in Ghost Wars, The Bell Jar and Ocean’s Eight all of which are filmed in the coming months.