UTOPIA - Interviews with Creator Gillian Flynn, John Cusack, Sasha Lane and more

Utopia is the latest series being offered from Amazon Prime that blurs the dark comic world and reality.

Based on and adapted from a 2013 dark comic British conspiracy series of the same name that won an International Emmy for Best Drama, the North American version is brought to you by best selling novelist, Gillian Flynn.

Flynn’s bestseller-turned-hit movie Gone Girl and mini-series Sharp Objects paved the way for her at adapt and produce the eight-episode Amazon thriller “Utopia.”

The series follows a group of nerdy comic book fans who team up at a comic-con like conference through their exposure to a long-lost graphic novel, which just happens to coincide with a global pandemic that is killing children — unless a vaccine is discovered. ( hmmm… sound a little TOO close to reality??)

Flynn of course wrote this series way before we knew anything about COVID 19. In fact, the series was initially set to adapt with her Gone Girl director David Fincher at HBO but Fincher opted out over budget issues.

So, Amazon picked up the project and Flynn was back in business.  Flynn was determined to honour the original series, while still putting her own individualistic stamp on it.  Having spent nearly a decade bringing it to life Flynn wanted to find a way to make the series more “gritty,” ultimately providing a version that’s “realistic,” “dirty,” and even “nasty” in its stylistic approach.

At a virtual “Comic-Con” appearance, here’s how Flynn described her new vision for Utopia:
“My idea was not only to Americanize it and deal with things that are specifically resonant to Americans in a lot of ways, but also to make it gritty and dirty and nasty in a very realistic way. Whereas [Dennis Kelly] took his cue from the graphic novels themselves, I took my cue more from the 70s paranoia thrillers that I loved after Watergate that came out in that era where no one trusted anyone and there was a breakdown in what society, [the] government, the world was feeling like. And I wanted it to feel like that. I wanted that paranoia to feel very real.”

She also added a new character to the mix which lured veteran movie actor John Cusack on board for his very first television series. Cusack plays the mysterious Dr. Kevin Christie a scientific billionaire who ties in with the comic book theme and the pandemic.

The series boasts an impressive cast which includes Sasha Lane ( American Honey) Rainn Wilson ( The Office), Dan Byrd, Jessica Rothe, Desmin Borges, and Ashleigh LaThrop.

Utopia starts streaming on Amazon Prime on Friday.

I spoke with John Cusack , Gillian Flynn, Sasha Lane and some of the cast about working on the series and found out who in real-life is a self proclaimed comic book nerd!

(all  interviews are in this playlist)