Sam Neill, Jeremy Northam, and Henry Cavill have signed on to star opposite Mission: Impossible III's Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the Showtime period series The Tudors.

Based on the early life of Henry VIII (Meyers), the series is a serialized drama about the reign and marriages of England's former King.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Neill will play Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Henry VIII's most important government minister, who possessed great power until he failed to secure for Henry a divorce from Catherine of Aragon.

Showtime has orderd 10 episodes of The Tudors to start in the fall.