HBO Feature With Transgender Subject

Hot off the success of his Oscar nomination for "In the Bedroom," Tom Wilkinson has teamed with Jessica Lange to star in the HBO feature "Normal," based on Jane Anderson's stage play "Looking for Normal."

The project will shoot in Chicago starting this month and ending in July, with Anderson directing from her own adaptation.

"Normal" centers on Ray, a happily married man in Ohio who has been holding a decades-long secret: He has been harboring transgender feelings. His 25-year-old marriage suffers a shock to the system when he reveals to his family that he is a woman in mind but not in body and that he intends to live his life as a transsexual. His wife (Lange), young adult son and teenage daughter -- herself exploring womanhood for the first time -- must deal with the impact of the revelation and the man's subsequent odyssey.

Lydia Pilcher is producing, with Cary Brokaw executive producing.

Wilkinson is repped by the Gersh Agency and his British agent Lou Coulson. He next stars opposite Reese Witherspoon and Judi Dench in "The Importance of Being Earnest" for director Oliver Parker.

Lange, repped by CAA, recently came aboard to star in Intermedia Films' "Masked & Anonymous," which she will shoot after she completes "Normal."

The stage play for "Normal" had its world premiere at the Geffen Playhouse last year and starred Beau Bridges and Laurie Metcalf.