Peacock’s “Twisted Metal” TV series is set to star Anthony Mackie, and THR reports this afternoon that Oscar nominee Thomas Haden Church (Sideways) has also signed on.
Church will play Agent Stone, “a cold and unyielding post-apocalyptic highway patrolman who rules the roads with a silver tongue and a twisted iron fist, prosecuting even the smallest crimes with the harshest of judgements. Stone will stop at nothing to bring law and order back to the Divided States of America, and will kill anyone in his path who defies his power.”
Kitao Sakurai (Bad Trip) is on board to direct “multiple episodes” of the series.
The television series currently in the works from Sony Pictures Television and PlayStation Productions, being described as a “comedic, half hour live action adaptation.”
The original take for the live-action series comes courtesy of Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the duo behind Zombieland and the Deadpool movie.
“Anthony Mackie stars as John Doe, a smart-ass milkman who talks as fast as he drives. With no memory of his past, John gets a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make his wish of finding community come true, but only if he can survive an onslaught of savage vehicular combat.” Mackie will also executive produce the upcoming series.
“Twisted Metal is a high-octane action comedy, based on an original take by Deadpool scribes Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick about a motor-mouthed outsider offered a chance at a better life, but only if he can successfully deliver a mysterious package across a post-apocalyptic wasteland. With the help of a trigger-happy car thief, he’ll face savage marauders driving vehicles of destruction and other dangers of the open road, including a deranged clown who drives an all too familiar ice cream truck.”
Michael Jonathan Smith (“Cobra Kai”) is on board to write and show-run the “Twisted Metal” series. Additionally, Will Arnett and Marc Forman are executive producing.
The first Twisted Metal game was released in 1995, developed by SingleTrac and published by Sony for the PlayStation. That original game spawned follow-ups and spinoffs, with a movie adaptation at one point in the works from the director of Crank and Ghost Rider. That project never came to be, and a TV adaptation has been in development for the past few years.