Pitt, Norton take on Lewis & Clark for HBO

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- Actors Brad Pitt and Edward Norton are teaming with HBO and National Geographic for a 10-part miniseries about the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Norton will direct at least one of the episodes and will share executive producer duties with Pitt as well, Daily Variety reported Monday.

The miniseries is being adapted from Stephen Ambrose's book, "Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West," which was optioned by National Geographic years ago, Variety said.

Norton told Variety the story more than justifies 10 hours worth of TV time.

"Lewis and Clark's expedition is as great a story as you could ever hope to tell, and like so many people, Brad and I have both been drawn to it for years," Norton said. "We both always agreed that compressing that story into a feature-length film ruined the spirit of it ... so we sat down and said, 'How can we really do this justice?'"