Liam Hemsworth (Hunger Games) is set to play the lead role in an upcoming action-thriller series for Quibi, Jeffrey Katzenberg’s short-form content company, Variety has learned.
Hemsworth will play the character of Dodge Maynard who is terminally ill and is desperate to provide for his pregnant wife before he dies. In order to do so, Maynard decides to accept an offer to participate in a deadly game where he finds out he is not the hunter but the prey.
This will be the first show to star Hemsworth since he has briefly appeared on shows such as Workaholics and The Muppets. The Australian actor has recently played in the romantic comedy Isn’t It Romantic and the thriller Killerman, which will hit theaters in August. He has just completed the feature Arkansas opposite Vince Vaughn. His other recent credits include The Duel and Independence Day: Resurgence.
Nick Santora (Sopranos) serves as writer of the series and Phil Abraham (Mad Men, Daredevil) serves as director. Santora and Abraham will also serve as executive producers. Gordon Gray and Silver Reel Pictures will also serve as executive producers, Variety has learned.
The show is produced by CBS Television Studios for Quibi, which is scheduled to launch in April 2020
Other Quibi projects include Steven Spielberg’s After Dark, a horror series that users will be able to watch only between “sundown and sunrise local time.” Other partners include Anna Kendrick, Guillermo del Toro, Jason Blum, Antoine Fuqua, Sam Raimi, Steven Soderbergh, Catherine Hardwick, Doug Liman, Laurence Fishburne and Stephen Curry’s Unanimous Media. The company has also ordered shows featuring Chrissy Teigen, Tyra Banks, Don Cheadle and Idris Elba as well as a remake of MTV’s Punk’d. Quibi will also offer a sports highlights show and brief daily newscasts.