Deadly outbreak

John Cusack plays a biotech billionaire in a pandemic themed conspiracy thriller based on C4 series Utopia

- JUDY EWENS, REBECCA MAHONEY, SEAN MARLAND 

Panic on the streets of America and a sinister new super-flu threatening to engulf the world – the premise of Amazon Prime Video’s new thriller may sound all too familiar in today’s coronavirus climate.

Written and executive-produced by Gone Girl and Sharp Objects author Gillian Flynn, eight-part series Utopia is inspired by C4’s 2013 Emmy with real-life resonance winning show of the same name.

The action follows a ragtag group of comic-book fans who meet online and bond over their obsession with an underground cult comic called Utopia.

Believing that Utopia contains hidden messages of real-life threats to humanity, including a flu pandemic, they set off on a risky mission to save the world, which leads them to the comic’s wild central character, Jessica Hyde (Sasha Lane), unstable hitman Arby (Christopher Denham), and a shadowy deep-state organisation called The Harvest.