Per TvLine, comedian Rainn Wilson has been announced to be cast in Amazon Video’s upcoming mini-series adaptation of the British thriller drama, Utopia. Which, will also be produced by writer Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl and Sharp Objects).
Wilson will play Michael Stearns, a virologist who is no longer respected as he once was before in his glory days. But after the breakout of a highly contagious flu type virus, Michael offers his expertise but is then tangled up in something bigger.
The origin series the adaptation is based on, centered around a graphic novel called The Utopia Experiments that had been rumored to have predict different disastrous events in the past. With an unpublished sequel being rumored to contain even more information that will help ensure the survival of mankind.
Throughout Utopia‘s original series’ run, various groups and people try to find its manuscript, while some aim to use its predictions to commit serious crimes. And although it was generally well received by critics, ultimately due to critical backlash involving the depiction of graphically violent scenes with child actors, the series was eventually cancelled.
It was broadcast on Channel 4 from 15 January 2013 to 12 August 2014 and was written by Dennis Kelly. It starred Fiona O’Shaughnessy, Adeel Akhtar, Paul Higgins, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Alexandra Roach, Oliver Woollford, Alistair Petrie and Neil Maskell.
The US adaptation will follow a similar plotline, as it follows a group of young adults after meeting online, who are subsequently hunted down by a state organization after gaining possession of a seemingly clairvoyant graphic novel that predicts future events. Within the comic’s pages, they discover each conspiracy theory may actually be real and are forced into the dangerous, unique and ironic position of saving the world.