EXCLUSIVE: Oscar winner J.K. Simmons has been tapped as the lead of The Westies, MGM+'s upcoming period crime drama series from co-creator, executive producer and showrunner Chris Brancato.
Co-created by Brancato and Michael Panes, The Westies is set in the early 1980s when the construction of the Jacob Javitz Convention Center on the Westies' home turf in Hell's Kitchen promises a financial windfall for the Irish-American organized crime gang. Despite being outnumbered 50-to-1 by the Five Families of the Italian mafia, the Westies' legendary brutality and cunning have given them the leverage necessary to share the spoils through a fragile détente. But internal conflict between the brash younger generation and the old-school leadership threatens to set a match to this powder keg, which will sweep the Westies into the FBI's ever-deepening investigation into the Italian mafia.
Simmons will plat Eamon Sweeney, the charismatic but ruthless leader of The Westies, whose old-school charm and neighborhood loyalty mask fierce criminal ambition and calculated brutality.
"J.K. Simmons is one of the finest actors working today," said Michael Wright, head of MGM+. "His authenticity and intensity bring an invaluable quality to this complex and exhilarating story, and we can't wait to see him bring this unforgettable character to life."
Production on the eight-episode The Westies is slated to begin in July in Toronto.
"J.K. Simmons doesn't just play authority -- he radiates it," said Brancato, whose credits as co-creator include Netflix's Narcos and MGM+'s Godfather of Harlem. "We're lucky to have an actor who brings the gravitas and danger that this world demands."