Michael Imperioli and Ellen Burstyn to Star in For One More Day

ABC Television and Harpo Films announced today that Emmy Award-winning actor Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos) and Academy Award-winning actress Ellen Burstyn (The Fountain, The Exorcist) will star in the two-hour television event motion picture, Oprah Winfrey Presents: Mitch Albom's For One More Day, based on Albom's bestselling book, "For One More Day." Principal photography begins today on location in Norwalk, CT, as well as other locations in Connecticut and New York.

Imperioli will play Chick Benetto, a broken-down, former baseball player who has collapsed into alcoholism and despair. He returns one night to his small hometown with plans to take his own life. At the final moment, he is magically granted one more day with his departed mother, Posey Benetto -- to be played by Burstyn -- who illuminates the secrets of both their lives and shows him a way to redemption.

Harpo Films will produce the film under its "Oprah Winfrey Presents" banner for ABC. The program will air in 2007. Oprah Winfrey and Kate Forte are executive producers. Mitch Albom is writing the teleplay. Lloyd Kramer (Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven) will direct. Their previous collaboration, Tuesdays with Morrie, yielded four Emmy wins, including for Outstanding Made-for-Television Movie and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Mini-Series or Movie.