Chris Cooper, Dianne Wiest, and Ewan McGregor were in New York today shooting a scene from HBO’s upcoming The Corrections, based on Jonathan Franzen’s acclaimed book. Click here for my initial report on the casting.

It has been over 10 years since The Corrections was acquired for Hollywood. Initially they wanted it to be a film. That idea ended up being stuck in development for a while until last summer when it was announced that they’d decided to turn the Lambert family story of Midwest struggle into a drama series. Cooper and Wiest were cast as Alfred and Enid. McGregor plays Chip. Gary and Denise have yet to be confirmed.

Sometimes it’s just not the right time, you know? And sometimes it’s the perfect time. Sometimes the perfect time is a little ironic. After all, The Corrections was written before 9/11, before the sub-prime mortgage crisis, when financial products were replacing technology losses. The hit shows back then were Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, ER, Friends, Touched By An Angel (???), and Everybody Loves Raymond. One decade later and, well, another economic correction is underway, with the kind of pop culture spotlight that makes it tangible to a television viewer. Mirror that with the fractured family struggle and I think we might now have a much more receptive audience.