Ryan Murphy News: HBO Sexuality Drama 'Open' Gets First Cast Member, Wes Bentley
Open, the upcoming HBO pilot by Ryan Murphy, has its first cast member on board.
The Hollywood Reporter confirmed Thursday that actor Wes Bentley has signed on to star on the show.
The show has been described as "multi-character exploration of the complex, ever-evolving landscape of sexuality, monogamy and intimacy in relationships."
Bentley's character will be Evan Foster. The Hollywood Reporter claimed the character is "handsome but arrogant" and "a bit of a blowhard who loves espousing his theories on human sexuality.
The actor recently appeared as Seneca Crane in The Hunger Games, the adaptation of Suzanne Collins' novel released in 2012. He is also set to appear in the upcoming film Lovelace, about the late pornographic movie star Linda Lovelace.
HBO ordered the pilot in April and, were it picked up would be Murphy's third series on television, along with Glee and American Horror Story.
The network Oxygen has not yet made a decision on Murphy's Glee-related reality competition show The Glee Project, while NBC recently cancelled another Murphy entity, The New Normal, after only one season.
Murphy currently has another project with the premium cable network. The writer/producer is working on an adaptation of the Tony-winning play by Larry Kramer, The Normal Heart.
Sexuality is a subject matter that has frequented Murphy's previous television work. He delved into the topic on the show Nip/Tuck and on a transgender drama pilot developed for the network F/X called Pretty/Handsome, in which actor Joseph Fiennes played a man exploring his own sexuality.
Murphy told Deadline.com in April that he thought HBO would be an ideal place for the show, because it's a network allowed to push boundaries on controversial subject matter.
"I'm thrilled about it," Murphy said in the magazine. "They have great projects, and this is really an adult show that is very frank in its depiction of sex."
Open begins production in fall 2013.
