Beyond the fact that it’s one of the most anticipated Netflix series of 2014, we haven’t actually heard that much about the new Netflix series from the Wachowskis. That is typically par for the course for the Wachowskis, who like to keep their projects shrouded in secrecy until they absolutely have to talk about it. The directing duo hasn’t had much luck at the box office since The Matrix films, striking out with Speed Racer and the very ambitious (and I thought excellent) Cloud Atlas. In fact, their next film, Jupiter Ascending, was dropped from its July release and pushed back to February.
Hopefully, they’ll have better luck in television, and fans of Cloud Atlas will probably appreciate at least the premise of their forthcoming Sense8. We finally have plot details, provided by co-showrunner J. Michael Straczynski, best known as the writer behind Babylon 5 and, uh, the original script for World War Z (before Damon Lindelof was brought in to rewrite).
From Deadline:
“The series follows eight characters around the world who, in the aftermath of a tragic death, find themselves linked to each other mentally and emotionally. They can not only see and talk to each other as though they were in the same place, they have access to each other’s deepest secrets. Not only must they figure out what happened and why and what it means for the future of humanity, they must do so while being hunted by an organization out to capture, kill or vivisect them.”
I very much have the sense that it’s a spiritual cousin to Cloud Atlas (in fact, it features a cast member from that movie). We also now know who will be on the show, a mix of familiar names and faces and not-so familiar names and faces. This is the cast we’re looking at:
Naveen Andrews
Daryl Hannah
Tuppence Middleton
Aml Ameen
Freema Agyeman
Tena Desae
Doona Bae
Max Riemelt
Alfonso Herrera
Erendira Ibarra
Miguel Silvestre
Terrence Mann
The global series will be set (and filmed in) nine locations: Chicago, San Francisco, London, Iceland, Seoul, Mumbai, Berlin, Mexico City and Nairobi.
It is good to see Naveen Andrews back at work in something people will actually watch, and Netflix couldn’t have found better people in the Wachowskis to introduce a sci-fi series to their slate of original content. Unfortunately at this point it does appear that Sense8 will not air until early 2015.
Source: Deadline
