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Production is set to begin on the Turner Network Television (TNT) Original film THE WARDEN, starring Ally Sheedy, Lindsay Crouse, Ron Rifkin, Sam Robards, Robert Gossett, and Roger Guenveur Smith. Lynda LaPlante (Prime Suspect) will executive-produce the film for Granada Entertainment, together with Scott Siegler, Jon Cowan and Robert Rovner. Stephen Gyllenhaal (Paris Trout, Losing Isaiah) will direct from a script adapted by Natalie Chaidez (New York Undercover, Cracker), who is also producing, from material by LaPlante. The film is scheduled to premiere in January on TNT.
A political appointee, Helen Hewitt (Sheedy) is the first female warden in an all-male, maximum—security prison, a world filled with aggressive inmates and scheming bureaucrats. She will have to solve a murder and rebuild the riot-torn prison in order to prove to her male superiors that she is up to the job. Rifkin will portray Judge Faschbinder, assistant director of the Corrections Department. Robards will portray Helen's estranged husband. Gossett portrays a conniving deputy warden, with Smith starring as an enterprising inmate. Crouse will portray Helen's friend and mentor.
Sheedy's film credits include High Art, for which she earned an Independent Spirit Award, a Los Angeles Film Critics Award and a National Society of Film Critics Award; Sugar Town; The Autumn Heart; Hearts of Dixie; Joel Schumacher's St. Elmo's Fire; John Hughes' The Breakfast Club; War Games, co-starring Matthew Broderick; and Bad Boys, co-starring Sean Penn. Her television credits include the telefilms Our Guys: Outrage at Glen Ridge, The Fury Within, Ultimate Betrayal and Chantilly Lace.
Rifkin was seen most recently in Boiler Room. His other film credits include The Negotiator, L.A. Confidential, Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives and Manhattan Murder Mystery, Last Summer in the Hamptons, Wolf, JFK, The Sting II, The Big Fix, The Sunshine Boys and Silent Running. He will next be seen in Keeping the Faith, directed by and starring Edward Norton. On television, Rifkin has been seen in numerous films and miniseries, such as Flowers for Algernon, Norma Jean & Marilyn, The Sunset Gang and The Winds of War. Rifkin won the 1998 Tony© Award for Best Supporting Actor for the revival of Cabaret and on Broadway most recently starred in Wrong Mountain.
Robards will be seen in the upcoming feature Bounce, with Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow. He also starred in American Beauty, Mrs. Parker & The Vicious Circle, Pret-A-Porter, Casualties of War and Bird. On television, he starred in the series Maximum Bob and in the TNT Original film The Man Who Captured Eichmann. Gossett has appeared in the feature films Devious Beings, Arlington Road, The Net and White Man's Burden. He also guest-starred on the television series Family Law, Touched By An Angel, NYPD Blue and 7th Heaven.
Crouse's feature film credits include The Insider, The Progeny, Prefontaine, The Arrival, Indian in the Cupboard, Bye Bye, Love, Places in the Heart, Slap Shot and All the President's Men. She guest-starred on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Law & Order, Touched By An Angel and NYPD Blue.
Smith can currently be seen in the feature film Final Destination and also starred in Summer of Sam, He Got Game and Eve's Bayou. On television, he starred in the films The Color of Courage and Fallen Angels.
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