Mark Rylance to Star as 'Thomas Cromwell' in BBC's WOLF HALL Mini-Series Adaptation

According to the Daily Mail, Mark Rylance will star as Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's chief minister, in a six-part BBC mini-series adaptation of Hilary Mantel's popular novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies.

Read the original report here.

Rylance's historical character Cromwell took a large part in annulling Henry VIII's marriage to Catharine of Aragon, setting the king up with Anne Boleyn, Anne's execution and Henry's marriage to Jane Seymour, among many important affairs of state.

Screenwriter Peter Straughan has signed on for the series and has split the two books into six one-hour episodes. No director or further casting has been announced.

Rylance is currently in rehearsals for Nice Fish at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. He will also direct Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones in Much Ado About Nothing at the Old Vic, beginning September 7, followed by turns in Richard III and Twelfth Night (which he just finished in the West End) on Broadway. When he finishes all these projects, filming for the mini-series will begin.

Rylance has also appeared in Jersalem and La Bete in the West End and on Broadway, and in Broadway's Boeing-Boeing. His off-Broadway credits include Two Gentlemen of Verona and Henry V.

Mantel is at work on the third installment of her Cromwell trilogy, titled Mirror and the Light.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride