Jane Lynch to Portray Janet Reno in Discovery's 'Unibomber' Series MANIFESTO

Discovery Channel announced today that Golden Globe and two-time Emmy winner Jane Lynch ("Glee," "Hollywood Game Night") has been cast in its upcoming highly-anticipated scripted series MANIFESTO, set to air this year. Produced by John Goldwyn, serving as consultant to Discovery, Lionsgate, Trigger Street Productions and Discovery Channel, the series will tell the story of how FBI agent Jim "Fitz" Fitzgerald (Sam Worthington, "Avatar", "Hacksaw Ridge") deployed a radical approach to intelligence gathering to take down Ted Kaczynski (Paul Bettany, "Gangster No. 1," "Captain America: Civil War"), also known as the "Unabomber," one of the most infamous criminal masterminds in the world.

Production starts in Atlanta on January 30, 2017. Emmy(R) Award-winning television producer and director Greg Yaitanes ("Quarry," "Banshee") will executive produce, direct and serve as showrunner. Andrew Sodroski, who topped Hollywood's famed Black List for screenplays in 2013 with "Holland, Michigan," created the series and serves as an Executive Producer. Jim Fitzgerald will serve as Consulting Producer.

Lynch has been cast as former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno. At 57 years old, Reno was the first woman to serve as Attorney General, a true public servant and a woman of great character and resolve. Every major case in the country came across her desk, and there was no bigger one than the hunt for the Unabomber. Lynch's Reno will play opposite Golden Globe nominee Chris Noth ("The Good Wife," "Sex In The City"), who plays Don Ackerman, the Bay Area Divisional Head of the FBI, who supervised the Unabomber Task Force.

Lynch also joins Sam Worthington (Mel Gibson's critically-acclaimed "Hacksaw Ridge," "Avatar") playing Jim "Fitz" Fitzgerald, one of the most decorated profilers in the history of the bureau, whose radical approach to intelligence gathering ultimately took Kaczynski down; Paul Bettany ("Gangster No. 1," "Captain America: Civil War") as Ted Kaczynski, the "Unabomber"; and Oscar nominee Keisha Castle-Hughes ("Roadies," "Game of Thrones") as Tabby, a street agent who partners with Fitzgerald. This series features both Bettany and Worthington's first major leading roles on U.S. television.

Jane Lynch is the two-time Emmy Award-winning host of NBC's "Hollywood Game Night." Lynch was raised near Chicago and cut her theatrical teeth at The Second City and Steppenwolf Theatre. She made her Broadway debut in the 2013 production of "Annie" and soon embarked on her own live concert tour, "See Jane Sing." Lynch is an Emmy and Golden Globe winner for her portrayal of Sue Sylvester on "Glee." Additional television credits include "Party Down," "Lovespring International," "Two and a Half Men" and "The L Word." Lynch's film credits include the recent Christopher Guest movie "Mascots", "The Three Stooges," "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "Julie & Julia," "A Mighty Wind" and "Best in Show."

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos