These days, the path for a breakout indie filmmaker has many forks. You can leap right to a blockbuster, stay in your lane with more auteur arthouse movies, or pivot to television and take your storytelling talents to a bigger canvas. William Oldroyd is taking the latter path.
The director behind last year’s sensational and icy “Lady Macbeth,” has inked a deal to helm “Chimerica.” The four-part miniseries will adapt Lucy Kirkwood’s critically acclaimed play that unfolds a drama about U.S/China relations, kicking off with the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Here’s the synopsis:
Tiananmen Square, 1989. As tanks roll through Beijing and soldiers hammer on his hotel door, Joe – a young American photojournalist – captures a piece of history.
In New York, 2012 Joe is covering a presidential election, marred by debate over cheap labour and the outsourcing of American jobs to Chinese factories. When a cryptic message is left in a Beijing newspaper, Joe is driven to discover the truth behind the unknown hero he captured on film. Who was he? What happened to him? And could he still be alive?
The project is set up over at UK broadcaster Channel 4, and Benedict Wong, who played Chinese dissident Zhang Lin in the play, is in talks to reprise his role, with an A-lister sought for the lead. No word yet on when cameras will roll, but we’re glad to see Oldroyd stepping into the world of Peak TV. [Deadline]