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Amazon's 'Sea Oak' Casts Glenn Close In Zombie/Family Dramedy Pilot
In what can easily be seen as a good sign for the show's future, Amazon announced that Emmy Award-winning actress Glenn Close (Damages) will be starring in their half-hour pilot Sea Oak, which is being best described as a hybrid of zombie drama and family-revenge comedy.
Originally picked-up as a pilot by Amazon back in March of this year, Sea Oak revolves around Aunt Bernie (Close), a meek, unmarried woman with no children living in working-class Rust Belt City who's killed in a home invasion. Compelled by the sheer force of her deeply personal dissatisfaction, she comes back from the dead full of rage and determined to create the life she's always wanted but never had. But this time, Bernie isn't going it alone: she's bringing her family along for the ride (including a nephew who's a part-time stripper and two feckless nieces) as she tries to free all of them from their lives in the living-hell-of-a-housing-complex called Sea Oak.
Written by author George Saunders and based on his own short story, Sea Oak will be executive produced by Jonathan Krauss/Affiliated Pictures. Lael Smith and Keir McFarlane. Saunders' work has been of particular interest as of late, with his bestselling debut novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, just being acquired by Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman for a feature film treatment.
Sea Oak is Close's first series regular role since her five-season run on Damages, earning the actress two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe for her role as complex, cutthroat attorney Patty Hewes in the series from Glenn Kessler, Todd A. Kessler and Daniel Zelman that aired on both FX and DirecTV until 2012. Since that time, Close has concentrated on her film career, which included roles in Low Down, Guardians of the Galaxy and The Girl With All The Gifts. Close is also no stranger to the stage, having won three Tony Awards for her roles in The Real Thing, Death and the Maiden and Sunset Boulevard.