Marvel's Blade and Luke Cage star Mahershala Ali has signed up to star in new thriller series The Plot.
Variety reports that the limited series, which Ali will also executive produce, will see the Oscar-winning actor play a struggling author named Jacob, who has not written a successful novel for a long time and who is primed to seize any opportunity that might come along to help revive his career.
When a once in a lifetime opportunity presents itself, Jacob decides to commit an act of literary theft that goes on to change his life as he finds success once again. But it soon transpires that somebody knows his secret, and he is forced to try to protect himself and the life he's built from their threats.
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The series is based on Jean Hanff Korelitz's 2021 novel of the same name and will be adapted by How to Get Away with Murder's Abby Ajayi, who will also serve as showrunner for the eight-episode series.
The Plot has been commissioned by Onyx Collective, which is Disney's content brand dedicated to programming from underrepresented voices, and will stream on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in all other territories (apart from Latin America, where it will air on Star+).
No release date has yet been confirmed for the series.
President of Freeform and Onyx Collective, Tara Duncan, said of the commission: "I was captivated with Hanff Korelitz's book, The Plot, and Abby's distinct point of view reinvents the story in a way that spoke to me and our mission at Onyx Collective.
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"There are so many interesting angles and nuances, that having the creative genius that is Mahershala Ali at the center of this mystery, is just a dream."
Mimi Valdés, who is one of the show's executive producers, added: "Hollywood is still not greenlighting enough projects with multidimensional Black characters, stories that simply focus on our humanity. The rarity of a straight-to-series order, especially for BIPOC projects, is not lost on us.
"We are beyond humbled to work with such an amazing team of collaborators to bring this incredible book to life."
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Reporter & Sub-Editor, Digital Spy Susannah is a freelance writer and sub-editor, specialising in the entertainment industry. She graduated in 2014, with a BA in English and American Literature and Creative Writing, and an MA in Creative Producing. She’s been writing for Digital Spy ever since, after first getting involved through work experience, and has written hundreds of stories for the site on a range of topics, from The Sims to Doctor Who. Susannah has also written for Reveal Magazine. Her special interests are soaps (her Mastermind subject would be 2000s Coronation Street), Marvel and Star Wars. She can also quote far too many lines from Friends and Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
