Paul Giamatti to Play Nikita Krushchev in HBO Telefilm

Emmy Award winner and stage veteran Paul Giamatti is set to portray Nikita Khrushchev in a new HBO telefilm, according to Variety.

The script by Paul Bernbaum will be based on Peter Carlson’s book, K Blows Top, which recounts Khrushchev’s 13-day American sojourn in September 1959, a time when Cold War tensions between the world superpowers were running high.

Giamatti has appeared on Broadway in The Iceman Cometh, The Three Sisters, Racing Demon, and Arcadia. His many film credits include Sideways, Duplicity, and The Last Station, and he will be seen later this year in Barney’s Version. He won the Emmy Award for his work in the title role of HBO’s John Adams.