The Wrap reports that comedian/actor/writer John Mulaney has signed on to play writer Henry David Thoreau in Apple TV+’s Dickinson, a dark coming-of-age comedy starring Hailee Steinfeld as famed poet Emily Dickinson in her early, rebellious years.
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Mulaney is best known for his work as a writer on Saturday Night Live and as a stand-up comedian with stand-up specials The Top Part, New in Town, The Comeback Kid, and Kid Gorgeous, for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special in 2018. Mulaney made his film debut in 2018, voicing Peter Porker/Spider-Ham in the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
Written by Alena Smith (The Affair, The Newsroom), Dickinson is set during Emily Dickinson’s era with a modern sensibility and tone. According to Deadline, it takes viewers into the world of Emily (Steinfeld, pictured), audaciously exploring the constraints of society, gender, and family from the perspective of a budding writer who doesn’t fit in to her own time through her imaginative point of view.
Apple TV+ will debut Nov. 1. The cost is $4.99/month — or one year free with the purchase of a new Mac, iPhone, or iPad.