As every streaming company continues to broaden its programming portfolio, green lights are being distributed as widely as they’ve ever been for new TV series, with every company waiting eagerly to break the Next Big Show.
It seems like every single day brings news of a new upcoming streaming series coming together, and the latest comes from Amazon, which has cast John Cusack in one of the leading roles of the forthcoming series Utopia. As reported by Variety, Utopia will follow “a group of young adults who meet online are mercilessly hunted by a shadowy deep state organization after they come into possession of a near-mythical cult underground graphic novel. They discover the conspiracy theories in the comic’s pages may actually be real and are forced into the dangerous, unique and ironic position of saving the world.”
Cusack, whose last major on-screan appearance came in Spike Lee’s 2015 film Chi-raq, will make his television debut as Dr. Kevin Christie, a charismatic biotech guru. Rainn Wilson and Sasha Lane have also been cast in the series.
Utopia comes from an idea hatched by Gone Girl and Sharp Objects author Gillian Flynn, who will also executive produce the series, in addition to serving as showrunner. While Flynn’s work (and films/series influenced by it) have been all the rage of late, Utopia will offer the A-list writer the chance to bring her twist-heavy stories to visual life, firsthand. Expect to hear more about a release date for the nine-episode first season in the very near future.
