John Woo, the director behind such blockbuster films as Mission Impossible II and Face/Off, has been tapped to executive produce a new TV series called Cognition, alongside television and film production company Catalyst Global Media, reports Variety.
Dubbed a neo-noir crime thriller, Cognition sounds a little bit like the first season of True Detective, following the story of former detective Travis Augustine, who attempts to resolve a 10-year-long serial killer investigation that consumed his life for the decade and, that he theorizes, may have been the trauma that led to his cancer. As Augustine undergoes an untested medical procedure to hopefully cure his disease, he tries to shake that investigation. But a series of copycat crimes start taking place, drudging up the memories, and making it tough for him to forget.
Related: Netflix snags its first original series from Italy, Suburra
The show will be set in two key, and contrasting spots: America’s mid-West, and the Far East. The new set of crimes will commence within an Asian metropolis.
Alex Garcia Lopez, who was behind British cult TV series Utopia and Misfits, created the show, and will also direct. Meanwhile, Woo will serve as executive producer with Terence Chang and Lori Tilkin. Catalyst, which was most recently behind the Peter Pan-inspired TV series Peter & Wendy, will both develop and finance the project, and handle distribution of the show worldwide. There’s no word yet on a North American network pickup.
Charlotte Walls, CEO of Catalyst, calls Woo “provocatively stylish, masterful” and notes his commercial approach as being in “perfect alignment with Catalyst’s agenda to deliver high-end mainstream TV series and films…”
While Woo has had a string of both hits and misses in North America over the past several decades, he has been mainly out of the Hollywood spotlight for the past few years.
The series, which will begin production next year, will include eight one-hour episodes. There’s no word yet on casting.