Robert De Niro is the latest movie star to make the move to TV. Netflix announced Wednesday that the Oscar-winning film legend will star in and executive-produce his first television project, the conspiracy thriller limited series “Zero Day,” from creators Eric Newman (“Narcos”) and Noah Oppenheim (“Jackie”).
“‘Zero Day’ asks the question on everyone’s mind — how do we find truth in a world in crisis, one seemingly being torn apart by forces outside our control?” goes the official logline for the series. “And in an era rife with conspiracy theory and subterfuge, how much of those forces are products of our own doing, perhaps even of our own imagining?”
Plot and character details were not revealed.
The limited series has a muscular writing-producing team behind it. Eric Newman is one of Netflix’s go-to producers. His credits for the streamer include “The Watcher,” the “Narcos” franchise, and the upcoming “Griselda” on the TV side, and “Bright,” “Spiderhead,” and “Rebel Moon” on the film side. Noah Oppenheim is a screenwriter and former NBC News executive. Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael S. Schmidt is a co-creator and executive producer, and is credited with providing some of the ideas for the “ripped-from-reality thriller.” “Wednesday” EP and former MGM head Jonathan Glickman is an executive producer. And eight-time Emmy-nominated “Mad Men” and “Homeland” director Lesli Linka Glatter directs all six episodes.
“I am a lifelong fan of Robert De Niro. To have him as a producing partner and star in this show is beyond my wildest dreams,” Newman said in a statement. “And Lesli Linka Glatter has directed so many of my favorite episodes of television; she was our clear first choice to direct this show. I am grateful to Netflix for their continued faith and support and thrilled to be in business with the amazing creative team of Noah, Lesli, and Jonathan on this timely (and terrifying) series.”
De Niro was one of the last movie star TV holdouts. Even as the quality of movie roles he took declined – in 2022, he appeared in “Wash Me in the River,” a direct-to-VOD thriller directed by Randall Emmett, the notorious filmmaker behind a host of poorly reviewed features – he conspicuously avoided TV roles. But now, he’s following his “Irishman” co-stars Al Pacino (“Hunters”) and Joe Pesci (the upcoming “Bupkis”) into the lucrative and creatively fertile lands of streaming television. He’ll next be seen in comedian Sebastian Maniscalco’s semi-autobiographical comedy film “About My Father” and the Martin Scorsese-directed period crime drama “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
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