John Cusack to Star in Amazon's American Version of 'Utopia'

He joins a cast that includes Rainn Wilson and Sasha Lane for the reboot of the cult U.K. TV series

BY Brock ThiessenPublished Apr 17, 2019

With America dead set on rebooting beloved U.K. TV series Utopia, the U.S. version of the show has now added none other than John Cusack to its cast.

Cusack has been cast as Dr. Kevin Christie for Amazon's American reboot of Utopia. As Variety reports, the character is described as "a charismatic, media-savvy and brilliant biotech mind who wants to change the world through science."

Cusack joins a cast that includes Rainn Wilson and Sasha Lane, with the latter portraying the lead role of Jessica Hyde. Believe it or not, Utopia marks the first time Cusack has held a starring role in a TV series.

As previously reported, Amazon's version of Utopia has enlisted Gone Girl/Sharp Objects author Gillian Flynn as its showrunner and executive producer.

The original U.K. series was created by Dennis Kelly aired for just two seasons before getting cancelled by Channel 4 — much to the destain of fans.

In a previous statement, Flynn said, "Utopia is pure creative catnip to me. Dennis Kelly's show blew my mind, and he has been so incredibly generous in letting me crack open his world and play around in it and make it my own weird, wild place.

"Utopia is all about exploring resonant issues within dark, twisted storytelling — it's a series that's urgent and current and a little holy-crap!, but a hell of a lot of a fun."

At one point, the American version of Utopia was set for an American remake through HBO back in 2014 with David Fincher onboard. Of course, this never version of the show never saw the light of day.

As of yet, Amazon has still not set a release date for its version of Utopia.

Latest Coverage