Danny Boyle FX Series Trust Adds Harris Dickinson

FX recently expanded its prestige drama lineup with Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle’s new anthology series, titled Trust. This particular offering dramatizes one of the most intriguing public criminal incidents of recent history with the ransom-seeking kidnapping of the curly-locked young heir John Paul Getty III, which shockingly resulted in apparent indifference and noncompliance from the family patriarch. Now, an up and coming star has been cast as the kidnapping victim in question.

Trust FX Latest News

Trust has found the curly-haired young kidnapping victim around which its story will center. Newcomer Harris Dickinson has been cast as oil heir John Paul Getty III, whose bizarre real-life 1973 kidnapping became the centerpiece of a media circus. A typically rebellious teen, Getty III was nabbed by money-motivated mobsters in Italy who saw the dollar signs typically attributed to the Getty family dynasty. However, cooperation was nowhere to be found amongst the family, with the young man’s drug-addicted father non-compliant and family patriarch John Paul Getty (Donald Sutherland) distracted by his own indulgent eccentricities to bother, leaving the embattled (and financially depleted) mother Gail Getty (Hilary Swank) in the lurch in a cruel manner.

Harris Dickinson, having appeared in the 2014 short Battle Lines, 2014 TV series Some Girls and 2016 TV movie Home, makes his feature film debut starring in this August’s Beach Rats, a Brooklyn-set sexual discovery drama. However, on Trust, Dickinson will play a famously ransomed young man who becomes understandably perplexed regarding his family’s apparent indifference over his predicament; a situation – almost akin to the 1986 comedy Ruthless People– that might have sounded sidesplittingly humorous had it been reserved to the realm of fiction.

Trust FX Cast

Donald Sutherland will play J. Paul Getty, the eccentric billionaire founder of the Getty Oil Company, named by the 1966 Guinness Book of Records as the world’s richest private citizen at $1.2 billion; a fortune nearly doubled by the time of his death in 1976. However, the life of his family became splashed across the news in a notorious, yet perplexing manner. Thus, the role of J. Paul should be a fascinating one for Sutherland, who has spent over 50 years entertaining us in film and television, notably with iconic movies such as 1967’s The Dirty Dozen, 1970’s M*A*S*H and recent television series’ such as Ice and Crossing Lines. Additionally, as the recalcitrant Machiavellian despot President Snow in The Hunger Games series, he even proved that he could make us love to hate him. 

Hilary Swank will play victim’s mother Gail Getty, who finds herself in a most perplexing of predicaments when the ransom-demanding kidnapping of her son – and heir to the Getty oil empire – John Paul Getty III, is met with apparent nonchalance from the eccentric, troubled family. Consequently, Gail – a Getty by marriage – doesn’t personally possess the money necessary to free her son, with help seemingly nowhere to be found. Swank, a two-time Best Lead Actress Oscar winner for the 1999 crucial tragic transgender drama Boys Don’t Cry and director Clint Eastwood’s tragic, pugilistic 2004 drama Million Dollar Baby, has purposefully cut down her workload in recent years. Her other post-Oscar roles include the 2014 drama You’re Not You as an ALS-suffering pianist, 2011 comedy New Year’s Eve, 2009 Amelia Earhart biopic Amelia, 2007 horror film The Reaping, 2006 historical thriller The Black Dahlia and the acclaimed suffrage-centric 2004 HBO TV movie Iron Jawed Angels. She'll next appear in the Steven Soderbergh-directed comedy Logan Lucky, which hits in August.

Trust FX Story

Set in 1973, Trust depicts the strange, true tale of J. Paul’s grandson and oil fortune heir, John Paul Getty III, who was famously kidnapped at 16-years-old in Rome. His mafia kidnappers, thinking they had a sure thing by ransoming the teen for millions of dollars, were stunned to find no one engaging with their threats. Thus, while the uncast role of young Getty III (eventual father to actor Balthazar Getty,) will be central to Trust, Sutherland’s role of J. Paul is the cornerstone of the series premise.

The eccentricity of the Getty family should be great dramatic fodder for Trust. Paul Getty II, father of the kidnapped teen, was of no use during the ordeal, unresponsive and stuck in a heroin kick. Plus, the grandfather in question J. Paul Getty was too busy with his five mistresses in a Tudor mansion in which he kept a pet lion! Unfortunately, that left Getty’s penniless mother tasked with dealing with the kidnappers on her own, even as even the Italian police neglected the case, believing it to be a prank.

Trust FX Crew

Danny Boyle directed all 10 episodes of Trust, reteaming with his Slumdog Millionaire scribe Simon Beaufoy, who scripted the series. Christian Colson will executive-produce with the pair. Boyle comes into Trust just as his two-decades-in-the-making sequel T2 Trainspotting finally saw its release. While the iconic director has fielded work in television earlier in his career, it's atypical for him and Trust will be his first in the medium since the pilot episode of the 2014 miniseries Babylon. As Eric Schrier, president of original programming for FX states of Trust:

“Simon, Danny and Christian have done a magnificent job of telling the story of the Getty family empire and its tumultuous history with Trust. Simon’s script wonderfully dramatizes the notorious and bizarre kidnapping of J. Paul Getty’s grandson. It’s the perfect way to open this limited series, allowing us to see how three generations, including one of the world’s richest men, clash when family, fortune and reputation are in jeopardy.”

Trust FX Release Date

Trust will commence production in London and Rome this June, with a premiere on FX planned for January of 2018.