‘The Alienist’: Douglas Smith Cast As Regular, Ted Levine As Recurring In TNT Series

Douglas Smith and Ted Levine have joined the cast of TNT’s upcoming 10-episode straight-to-series psychological thriller The Alienist, a co-production of Paramount Television and Turner’s Studio T. Daniel Brühl, Luke Evans and Dakota Fanning star in the series set during the Gilded Age of New York City in 1896, when a series of gruesome murders of boy prostitutes has gripped the city. Newly appointed Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt calls upon criminal psychologist — aka alienist — Dr. Laszlo Kreizler (Brühl) and newspaper illustrator John Moore (Evans) to conduct the investigation in secret.

Smith will play Detective Sgt. Marcus Isaacson, an expert in the criminal sciences and forensic medicine and the abrasive twin brother of Lucius (Matthew Shear). The pair are called upon to help with the investigation. Levine (Jurassic World sequel) will recur as Thomas Byrnes, the incredibly confident ex-police chief who is prominent in helping unravel the mystery. Robert Wisdom and Q’orianka Kilcher also are in the cast.

Jakob Verbruggen directs and exec produces along with Cary Fukunaga, Eric Roth, Hossein Amini and Anonymous Content’s Steve Golin and Rosalie Swedlin. Production is set for early this year in Budapest.

Douglas, whose recent credits include Miss Sloane, The Bye Bye Man and the just-kicked-off ABC miniseries When We Rise, is repped by Paradigm and More/Medavoy Management. Levine is with Kass Management.