Jude and Jason: Law, Bateman to star in new Netflix series
Jude and Jason: If you thought Jason Bateman was taking it easy since “Ozark” ended in 2022, you might want to take a closer look at his most recent acting and producer credits.
There’s the “SmartLess” podcast he regularly hosts alongside Will Arnett (“Lego Masters”) and Sean Hayes (“Will & Grace”), as well as his prominent role in the 2023 movie “Air.” And through his production banner, Aggregate Films, Bateman has executive produced a number of titles, including the Netflix limited series “Florida Man” and the 2023 rom-com “Your Place or Mine.”
Except for “Air,” Bateman’s most recent projects haven’t involved a lot of time onscreen, but that will likely change.
Netflix recently greenlit “Black Rabbit,” a new limited series starring Bateman and Jude Law (“The Talented Mr. Ripley,” 1999), and both actors are also onboard as executive producers. The series — Bateman’s first since “Ozark” — is based on an original idea from creators Zach Baylin (“King Richard,” 2021) and Kate Susman (“The Order”): “When the owner (Law) of a New York City hotspot allows his turbulent brother (Bateman) back in his life, he opens the door to escalating dangers that threaten to bring down everything he’s built” (that’s the official logline).
First announced back in October 2022, “Black Rabbit” now has a series order and even a director. Bateman himself will direct the first two episodes, as he did with “The Outsider.”
It was also announced that Cleopatra Coleman (“Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire”), Amaka Okafor (“Bodies,” 2023), Sopé Dirisu (“Gangs of London”) and Dagmara Dominczyk (“Succession”) will all star alongside Bateman and Law, whose Disney+ series “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” should arrive this year.
“Black Rabbit” is the latest title to come out of Bateman and Aggregate Films’ overall film and TV deal signed with Netflix back in 2018. It’s only in pre-production right now, so expect some time to pass before a premiere date is announced.
’Lockerbie’: The legal drama “Suits” enjoyed a renaissance of sorts last year when it became the mostwatched show on Netflix. The BBC is now hoping to replicate that success across the pond, after acquiring “Suits” and several other series to air on the British broadcaster’s TV channels and streaming service.
And there’s another connection between Netflix, BBC and “Suits”: Patrick J.Adams, who played Mike Ross in the legal drama, has joined the cast of the upcoming BBC-Netflix limited series, “Lockerbie.”
The six-episode drama is based on the tragic December 1988 terrorist attack on Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded while in flight over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, resulting in the deaths of 270 people. The limited series will focus on the crash investigation on both sides of the Atlantic, and “from the initial exhaustive search for evidence on the ground in Scotland, via the U.S. and Malta, to the trial at Camp Zeist in 2000, the drama takes us right up to the most recent indictment at the end of 2022” (per the official logline).
Other cast members include Connor Swindells (“SAS Rogue Heroes”), Merritt Wever (“Unbelievable”), Eddie Marsan (“Ridley Road”), Peter Mullan (“Ozark”), Tony Curran (“Mary & George”), Phyllis Logan (“Downton Abbey”) and many more, though neither the BBC or Netflix specified which roles they, or Adams, will play.
This isn’t to be confused with the upcoming five-part limited series “Lockerbie,” which stars Colin Firth (“The King’s Speech,” 2010) and Catherine McCormack (“Slow Horses”). That one is based on the book “The Lockerbie Bombing: A Father’s Search for Justice” by Jim Swire and Peter Biddulph, and it focuses on Swire’s fight for action and justice on behalf of the victims’ families.
The BBC-Netflix “Lockerbie,” which is filming in Scotland, Malta and Toronto, seems to focus more broadly on the investigation and the impact on both sides of the Atlantic. It was “initiated by filmmaker Adam Morane-Griffiths, whose research includes extensive interviews with Scottish police officers and representatives from United States investigative agencies, many of whom have never previously shared their stories,” according to the BBC and Netflix.