Robert De Niro might finally star in a TV show. Only it won’t be on television. It’ll be on Netflix.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the streaming service has optioned a political thriller called Zero Day with De Niro in the lead role, portraying a former President. The show comes from Eric Newman (Narcos) and NBC News President Noah Oppenheim (Jackie). Nothing else is known about the series currently, but the thought alone of De Niro carrying a series is exhilirating. If nothing else, it will provide an appropriate potential bookend for his first acting job on television: a 2001 episode of Sesame Street.
This is officially a mini-trend, too. First Harrison Ford took his first major role in a series for the Apple TV+ comedy Shrinking, and now De Niro is testing out life on the small screen with this. Elder statesmen of the cinema are finally turning their lonely eyes to 480-minute-long movies that play on the internet.
Newman’s latest work is a drama about the opioid crisis called Painkiller starring Uzo Aduba and Matthew Broderick. It should hit Netflix in 2023. Hardball and Today veteran Oppenheim was an executive producer on the fantastic The Thing About Pam and has a knack for converting real-life situations into thrilling, topical stories. Zero Day is definitely one to keep an eye on.
(via The Hollywood Reporter)