Iconic actor Keanu Reeves and feature film director Roland Emmerich are teaming up for a new virtual reality drama series that will be produced by Slingshot Global Media.
Stephen Hamel, of Company Films, and Keanu Reeves first brought the project to Roland Emmerich's production company Centropolis. They will executive produce the TV show, with best-selling novelist and comic book writer Gregg Hurwitz penning the pilot. He, too, is boarding the project as an executive producer.
About the untitled series, Roland Emmerich says:
"Gregg is an incredibly imaginative writer, and I'm looking forward to bringing his ideas for the show to life. It's exciting to get the opportunity bring a massive project like this to the small screen within a rapidly changing television space."
The story will take place in the future, and follows a young man who escapes his mundane life by entering an exciting Virtual World known as New Angeles. Once immersed inside this alternate reality, he assumes a new identity to become the man he feels he's destined to be. In the process, he unlocks the key to a mystery that has real-world consequences for both himself and his family.
David Ellender, who started Slingshot back in February, says:
"We're thrilled to have Roland Emmerich and Keanu Reeves on board for a project of this magnitude. Roland's masterful vision for this is extraordinary and Keanu's action work behind and in front of the camera speaks for itself."
Roland Emmerich will direct the pilot. It is not yet known if Keanu Reeves plans to appear in front of the camera.
It was recently announced that Keanu Reeves is producing and starting in another series for Slingshot titled Rain. The story will follow Keanu Reeves as John Rain, a half-Japanese, half-American hit-man for hire who makes it look as though his targets have died from natural causes. Rain travels to various different locations around the world to carry out his many jobs, and because of his chosen career, he finds it difficult to let anyone else into his life. The series will be based in part on the novels A Clean Kill in Tokyo, A Lonely Resurrection, Winner Take All, Redemption Games, Extremist, The Killer Ascendant, The Detachment and Graveyard of Memories.