LOS ANGELES, Oct 22 — The American remake of the Australian miniseries “The Slap” has been joined by Penn Badgley, the actor known to teen audiences for his role on “Gossip Girl.”
The actor who plays the budding novelist Dan Humphrey has not appeared on the small screen since the end of the teen drama on Manhattan’s privileged youth. NBC will soon bring him back into the limelight through a recurring role in its eight-episode miniseries “The Slap,” adapted from the Australian format of the same name.
The American remake will have the same plot as the original, exploring the chain of consequences arising when an adult slaps someone else’s child at a birthday party. Lisa Cholodenko (“The Kids Are All Right”) will helm the eight episodes, which will also feature Peter Sarsgaard (“The Killing”), Mary Louis-Parker (“Weeds”), Zachary Quinto (“Heroes,” “Star Trek”) and Brian Cox (“Deadwood”).
Based on the eponymous novel by Christos Tsiolkas, the Australian miniseries “The Slap” was set within a group of friends living in Melbourne’s suburbs and included a number of Greek-Australian characters. First aired in 2011 on Australian TV, the original production was headlined by Jonathan LaPaglia (“The District”) and Alex Dimitriades, who played a high school student on “Heartbreak High” during the 1990s. — AFP-Relaxnews
