Two rising stars are teaming up for a series on a new streaming service. Mackenzie Davis (Terminator: Dark Fate) and Himesh Patel (Yesterday) will star in the HBO Max series Station Eleven. It’s a post-apocalyptic drama based on the international bestseller by Emily St. John Mandel.
The story revolves around the survivors of a flu epidemic as they attempt to rebuild and reimagine the world anew. Davis will play a woman who performs in a post-apocalyptic Shakespeare troupe, while Patel will play an unemployed lost soul who must become a reluctant leader when the Georgia Flu strikes.
Patrick Somerville, creator of the Netflix miniseries Maniac, will serve as writer and showrunner. Hiro Murai (Atlanta) will direct. Paramount TV is producing.
Gone are the days of TV gigs being a step down from movies. So while Davis and Patel are budding stars, this is a lateral move nowadays. Davis already has TV experience herself, having played the lead in tech drama Halt And Catch Fire. She’ll next be seen in the aforementioned Terminator: Dark Fate, and also just wrapped filming on Jon Stewart‘s Irresistible.
Patel broke out in the Beatles homage Yesterday, and will next be seen alongside Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones in Amazon’s The Aeronauts. He has a working relationship with HBO already, having starred alongside Huge Laurie in the upcoming space comedy, Avenue 5, which hails from Veep creator Armando Iannucci. He’s currently filming a role in Christopher Nolan‘s top secret Tenet.
HBO Max has the unenviable task of trying to churn out content to keep up with its rivals, while keeping up the traditional HBO standard of quality. That’s a tall order. Getting great talent like Davis, Patel and Somerville together is as good a plan as any.
#Peace.Love.StationEleven