HBO Max Sets Premiere Date for 'Julia' Starring Sarah Lancashire
It's official: Julia, the HBO Max drama chronicling the life of the famous cookbook author and television personality Julia Child, will arrive on the streaming platform this March.
Last Tango in Halifax star Sarah Lancashire will play the iconic chef---an intriguing casting choice given that Child is such a specifically American figure---opposite former Frasier star David Hyde Pierce as Julia's husband Paul. The first three installments of the eight-episode series will arrive on the streaming platform beginning March 31, with weekly drops to follow each Thursday.
Lancashire is probably best known to American audiences for her role in Last Tango but she has starred in a diverse array of projects, including crime drama Happy Valley and period series like Lark Rise to Candleford and The Paradise.
Julia is predominantly inspired by Child's extraordinary life---which includes not just cooking superstardom but a stint with the government organization that was a precursor to the CIA---and her long-running series, The French Chef, which basically invented the concept of food television that has come to dominate your cable guide today. Through Child's singular can-do spirit, the series will explore an evolving time in American history: the emergence of a new social institution called public television, feminism and the women's movement, and the nature of celebrity. But at its heart, the series is a portrait of a loving marriage with an evolving and complicated power dynamic.
Other notable cast members include Brittany Bradford (Fear the Walking Dead) as the WGBH associate producer of I've Been Reading, who became a champion of Child's following her appearance on the show; Bebe Neuwirth (Blue Bloods) as Avis, Child's best friend; and Fiona Glascott (Indian Summers) as Judith Jones, the editor who both pushed Child's Mastering the Joy of Cooking and saved The Diary of Anne Frank from the reject pile. (A true hero, is what I'm saying.)
Julia is produced by Lionsgate and 3 Arts Entertainment. Chris Keyser serves as showrunner and executive produces alongside creator Daniel Goldfarb, Erwin Stoff of 3 Arts Entertainment, Kimberly Carver, and Charles McDougall. Todd Schulkin is a consulting producer on behalf of The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts.
Mark your calendars: Julia premieres Thursday, March 31.
