News first broke about Apple TV+ landing the limited series Five Days at Memorial late last year. At the time we didn’t know who would be starring in the upcoming show, only part of the creative team bringing it to screens in the future. And now we know who’s set to star.
As reported today by Deadline, Vera Farmiga (Bates Motel) has been tapped to lead the cast in the upcoming show. The series is being developed by ABC Signature for Apple TV+, with John Ridley (12 Years a Slave) and Carlton Cuse (Locke & Key) set to lead as show runners and executive producers.
Five Days at Memorial will tell the story of the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina making landfall in New Orleans. Farmiga will be playing Dr. Anna Pou, who was staffing Memorial hospital in the area when the storm arrived.
Here’s part of the description:
When the floodwaters rose, the power failed and the heat climbed, exhausted caregivers were forced to make life-and-death decisions that haunted them for years to come. Sheri Fink will executive produce alongside Ridley and Cuse.
The upcoming series is based on the book of the same name, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning Sheri Fink. Both Cuse and Ridley will be writing the series as well. Interestingly, the story will go beyond just the storm’s arrival and what happens in the hospital. As noted in the original report, the book goes in-depth about the 40 dead bodies that were discovered in the hospital once the storm dissipated, and Pou’s role in that:
Ultimately, 40 dead bodies were found in the hospital. The book looks to answer the question of whether medical staff at Memorial, led by Dr. Pou, euthanized critically ill patients after being trapped in the hospital for days without power. It also focuses on an attempt to prosecute Pou and two nurses for homicide after an investigation showed elevated levels of morphine and other drugs in 23 patients who had died at the hospital over the five-day period during Katrina.
No word yet on when we can actually watch this one, but it sounds interesting, especially with Farmiga in the lead role.