'Homecoming': First look at Julia Roberts in Amazon's upcoming suspense-thriller series
Julia Roberts' first look in the upcoming Amazon drama series 'Homecoming' has just been revealed. Playing the character of Heidi Bergman in the series, Roberts seems all decked up for the role of a caseworker at the Homecoming Transitional Support Center. In the story, the center Roberts' character, Heidi, works at, happens to be a facility that helps soldiers transition back to civilian life.
Also starring in the show is Stephan James, whose character — Walter Cruz — is one of the soldiers at the transition center and he's eager to begin the next phase of his life. Bobby Cannavale plays the role of Colin Belfast who oversees Heidi and the facility. Colin is an ambitious company man with outrageous demands that seem suspicious in terms of questionable motives.
Fast forward four years and Heidi is leading a new life, living with her mother — played by Sissy Spacek — and also working as a waitress in a small town when suddenly things change course once a Department of Defense auditor comes into the picture. Played by Shea Whigham, the auditor asks her questions about her reason for leaving the transitional facility. This sets into motion a realization for Heidi as she begins to figure out that the story she's been telling herself is far from the truth and this sets into motion a new series of events.
Jeremy Allen White, Alex Karpovsky and Dermot Mulroney are also in the cast of "Homecoming". The series has already received a two-season straight-to-series order and is set to debut on Amazon this fall. The story is based on a very popular podcast of the same name which was created by Gimlet Media. The podcast’s creators, Eli Horowitz and Micah Bloomberg, have written the upcoming series.
Sam Esmail, the creator of 'Mr. Robot', has been assigned to direct all of the 10 episodes of the first season. He will also be producing the series through his production company Esmail Corp. Along with that, 'Mr. Robot' executive producer Chad Hamilton of Anonymous Content; Horowitz and Bloomberg; and Chris Giliberti, Alex Blumberg, and Matt Lieber of Gimlet Media are onboard with the production too.
Roberts herself will be executive producing the series through her own production company, Red Om Films, while Universal Cable Productions will co-produce.
“To me, there’s something about these old-school thrillers,” Esmail said, as reported by Entertainment Weekly. “I’m talking about the Hitchcock thrillers where it was just about people and not about CGI. It wasn’t about spectacle, but about flawed people doing flawed things and going down a road you didn’t think you were gonna go down, and being surprised at every turn. That is what we hope this show does.”