SHOWTIME announced today that BAFTA Award winner Bill Nighy (Love Actually) will star in the highly anticipated upcoming original drama series THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH. He will reunite with stars Oscar and Emmy® nominee and BAFTA Award winner Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) and Oscar, BAFTA® and Screen Actors Guild® Award nominee Naomie Harris (Moonlight), both of whom he worked with on previous projects. The series will premiere exclusively on SHOWTIME later this year.
Nighy will play the brilliant Thomas Newton, the first alien to arrive on earth over 40 years ago. Alone and desperate, Newton summons Faraday (Ejiofor) to complete his original mission. But Newton’s time marooned among human beings has cost him everything, possibly even his sanity.
“I was honored to be invited to play the part of Thomas Jerome Newton that glorious David Bowie made so famous,” said Nighy. “I was keen to work with Chiwetel and Naomie again. I think the story is terrific and brilliantly expressed. I am an enthusiast for shows which extrapolate from current technology and give us plausible glimpses of a possible near future. It’s an important story which, as well as being highly entertaining, discusses the crucial issues of our time. I like to think that the filmmakers of the original film would applaud Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet for their imaginative daring and loyal regard.”
Based on the Walter Tevis novel of the same name and the iconic film that starred David Bowie, THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH will follow a new alien character (Ejiofor) who arrives on Earth at a turning point in human evolution and must confront his own past to determine our future.
The additional cast of THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH includes Jimmi Simpson, Rob Delaney, Sonya Cassidy, Joana Ribeiro, Annelle Olaleye, Kate Mulgrew, and Clarke Peters.
In addition to his BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor in Love Actually, Nighy also earned a Best Actor BAFTA in television for State of Play. His most recent project, Living, premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival® in January to critical acclaim. In August 2021, it was announced that Nighy would star in The Beautiful Game, and he can also be seen alongside Johnny Depp in the redemptive thriller Minamata. Other recent credits include Emma, Pokémon Detective Pikachu, Sometimes Always Never, Hope Gap, The Bookshop, Ordeal By Innocence, The Limehouse Golem and Their Finest. He also starred in films including Pride, About Time, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and its sequel, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Wild Target, Pirate Radio, Valkyrie, Notes On A Scandal, The Constant Gardener, Lawless Heart, Still Crazy and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (with Harris). Nighy began his career on the stage and has since earned acclaim for his work in numerous plays, including David Hare’s Pravda, Skylight, and A Map of the World. He received an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor for his performance in Joe Penhall’s Blue/Orange (opposite Ejiofor).
THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH is executive produced by Alex Kurtzman, Jenny Lumet, John Hlavin, Sarah Timberman, Carl Beverly, Heather Kadin, Aaron Baiers, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and STUDIOCANAL’s Rola Bauer and Françoise Guyonnet. The series is produced by CBS Studios in association with Secret Hideout and Timberman/Beverly. STUDIOCANAL owns the rights for both Walter Tevis’ book as well as the Nicolas Roeg film with David Bowie.
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