Alexander Ludwig to join Michael Shannon in 'Swing'

"Vikings" star Alexander Ludwig is on board "Swing", the Ivy League rowing drama, featuring Michael Shannon. According to Deadline, the film revolves around a group of friends and crew teammates in their final year at an Ivy League college in 1999. Their lives take a turn when an Army veteran assumes the position of the coach of their dysfunctional team.

"Swing"

Ludwig will play Alex Singleton, the "cocky and arrogant" team leader with a mean streak who aspires to make the Olympic rowing team. Michael Mailer is attached to direct with a script by Vojin Gjaja.

An HBO biographical drama pilot

In the events that preceded this, Two-time Oscar-nominated actor Michael Shannon signed on to play Dr. Jerry Buss, the owner of the LA Lakers professional basketball team, in a biographical drama pilot for HBO. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the pilot will be directed by Adam McKay of "Vice" and "The Big Short" fame. The hour-long drama will chronicle the professional and personal lives of the 1980s-era Lakers.

It is based on Jeff Pearlman's non-fiction book "Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s". Max Borenstein has penned the script.

Shannon's version of Buss will be a self-made millionaire whose success has only amplified his proclivity for risk. He redefines American sports, celebrity and wealth by transforming the Lakers into a dynasty, but his house of cards threatens to collapse on him and the people he loves most.

The show will also feature actor Jason Clarke as Jerry West, a Lakers legend and general manager of the team during the "Showtime" era.

He is described as the "cantankerous tortured genius of basketball ought to be the perfect man to build the Lakers into a dynasty if only he can get past his own worst enemy: Jerry West."

McKay is also executive producing the show alongside Kevin Messick, Borenstein, Jim Hecht, who co-wrote the story, Jason Shuman and Scott Stephens. Rodney Barnes is a co-executive producer.