John Cusack is the latest Hollywood actor to enter the web/TV series space with Amazon’s Utopia. In his first-ever starring role in a series, the actor will play Dr Kevin Christie, a brilliant, charismatic, media-savvy scientist, who wants to change the world through science.
Utopia is a story about a group of young adults, who are hunted by a shadowy deep-state organisation, because they are in possession of a graphic novel which has near-mythical status. This novel’s pages are rife with conspiracy theories, which these youngsters realise could actually be true, and they are thus forced into the dangerous, unique and ironic position of saving the world. The series is based on Dennis Kelly’s British series of the same name.
Cusack is the latest addition to the cast, after Rainn Wilson and Sasha Lane joined the project to play Michael Stearns and Jessica Hyde, respectively. The first season will consist of nine episodes with Gone Girl-writer Gillian Flynn serving as executive producer and showrunner. Jessica Rhoades, who collaborated with Flynn on Sharp Objects, will also executive produce alongside Dennis Kelly, Sharon Hall, Karen Wilson and Diederick Santer.