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Including Kiefer Sutherland in The Fugitive on Quibi
Quibi
Designated Survivor AND 24 star Kiefer Sutherland’s latest series – The Fugitive – is launching this week, but you won’t be able to watch it on BBC, ITV, Sky, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or other streaming services.
The show, a remake of the classic 1960s TV series and the 1993 Harrison Ford film, will air on new mobile-streaming platform Quibi, short for ‘quick bites’. Quibi’s content consists of films and TV series divided into episodes or chapters that are 10 minutes long or less.
Quibi is aimed at commuters and the COVID-19 pandemic has meant that its launch in April went under the radar, but viewers can download the app on their iphone or Android. It costs £7.99 a month to subscribe and there’s a 14-day free trial. Subscribers can also stream Quibi’s content on their televisions if they mirror or ‘cast’ their phones or tablets with a device such as Chromecast or by using Apple Airplay and a compatible TV.
CONTENT
Sutherland’s updated take on The Fugitive, airing from Monday 3 August, is the centrepiece of Quibi’s slate of shows. He plays Clay Bryce, a dogged detective on the hunt for family man Mike Ferro (Narcos’ Boyd Holbrook), who goes on the run after he’s wrongly accused of a bombing on the Los Angeles subway.
‘It is one of the best scripts I’ve read in a very long time,’ says Sutherland, 53. ‘The characters are just written so beautifully.’
A range of other shows already available to watch on Quibi include dark thriller Most Dangerous Game, starring Liam Hemsworth as a terminally ill man who, in order to provide for his pregnant wife, agrees to be the prey in a deadly hunt. Game of Thrones’ Sophie Turner heads the cast of Survive, about plane-crash survivors trekking through a frozen wilderness.
The Marvelous Mrs Maisel’s Rachel Brosnahan and Sex Education’s Asa Butterfield feature in horror anthology 50 States of Fright, and Queen Latifah drama When the Streetlights Go On centres on a suburban town in the 1990s rocked by a murder investigation. Die Hart sees comedian Kevin Hart enlist at an action-hero training school run by an acting coach played by John Travolta. Other comedies include
Home Movie: The Princess Bride, in which the likes of Josh Gad, Penélope Cruz and Hugh Jackman re-create the classic 1988 adventure film in their own homes during lockdown.
Big names featuring in factual series include Idris Elba, who competes against rally driver Ken Block in car stunts for Elba vs Block, while famous faces give members of the public $100,000 in Thanks a Million if they then donate half to a deserving cause.
Upcoming shows include Steven Spielberg’s horror series After Dark,which will only be available to watch at night. ‘It’s a superscary story,’ reveals Quibi’s founder Jeffrey Katzenberg. ‘Steven’s actually writing it himself. Getting him to write something is fantastic.’