Looking at the official synopsis Channel 4’s new drama Utopia (see beneath the trailer) it’s looks like the show may not strictly speaking be an SF show. But the trailer has “cult TV” written all over it, and it does concern a graphic novel, so it’s sort of in our area even if it does just turn out to be an urban thriller. Oh, and it’s got him from Misfits in it…
On the other hand an earlier press release from last summer about the casting of the show mentioned that the graphic novel in question, the eponymous Utopia, was “about a scientist who makes a deal with the Devil and whose pages are rumoured to have predicted the worst disasters of the last century.”
Anyway, take a gander and let us know what you think.
Dennis Kelly’s enigmatic thriller Utopia centres around The Utopia Experiments, a legendary graphic novel shrouded in mystery. When a small group of previously unconnected people who have met on a forum, find themselves in possession of an original manuscript of the fabled book, their lives suddenly and brutally implode, relentlessly pursued by a shadowy unit called The Network who will stop at nothing, to keep its origin and meaning secret. Whilst three of the forum members – Ian, an I.T. dropout, Becky, a student, and Wilson, a conspiracy theorist – meet in the pub, another is confronted and killed by two Network henchmen.
The only witness to the murder is the 11-year-old Grant – the fifth forum member – and when he flees with the manuscript, the henchmen give chase. Unable to return home, Grant finds himself alone. Elsewhere, Ian and Becky find themselves set-up for crimes they have not committed, and Wilson’s hacking skills attract the attention of Network henchmen Arby and Lee. Will he be able to escape their grip before it is too late?
As the trio’s lives begin to fracture, the world of civil servant Michael Dugdale is also torn apart as he is blackmailed by The Network over his affair with a prostitute. Just as things are looking increasingly desperate for Ian, Becky and Wilson, they come face to face with an enigmatic stranger who claims to offer them a way out.
Paul Higgins (In the Loop, The Thick of It), Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (Misfits), Alexandra Roach (The Iron Lady) and Neil Maskell (Kill List) head up the cast, which also includes James Fox (A Passage to India, Performance), Geraldine James (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) Simon McBurney (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Fiona O’ Shaughnessy (Outcast, Malice, Aforethought), Adeel Akhtar (The Dictator, Four Lions), Oliver Woollford (Blackout) and Michael Smiley (Kill List) who find themselves embroiled in a cult conspiracy theory turned terrifyingly real in this brand-new six-part drama series.
