EXCLUSIVE: After recently being named the next Captain America, Anthony Mackie looks to have found his next juicy role to sink his teeth into. Sources tell Deadline that Mackie is set to star in and executive produce Sony Pictures Television and PlayStation Productions’ Twisted Metal, a live-action adaptation of the popular video game. Mackie will play the lead role of John Doe in the half-hour live-action TV series, and insiders say Sony TV and PlayStation Productions are extremely high on the package and a plan is in the works to take it to buyers soon.
“We’re thrilled to have Anthony Mackie on board. His ability to blend comedy, action and drama is perfect for the Twisted world we’re creating,” said Asad Qizilbash, head of PlayStation Productions.
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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.
Doe is a smart-ass milkman who talks as fast as he drives. With no memory of his past, he 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.
“We’ve been big fans of Anthony’s phenomenal body of work over the years and knew he was the only actor who could play a character as complex, funny and compelling as John Doe. Fortunately for us, he agreed,” said Glenn Adilman, EVP Comedy Development at Sony TV.
Cobra Kai writer Michael Jonathan Smith will write and executive produce the series. Reese and Wernick are attached to executive produce. Will Arnett and Marc Forman, through their production company Electric Avenue, will executive produce along with Peter Principato/Artists First. Mackie, his longtime manager Jason Spire from Inspire Entertainment, Qizilbash and Carter Swan (PlayStation Productions) and Hermen Hulst (head of PlayStation Studios) will also executive produce.
Mackie is coming off reprising his role as Sam Wilson/The Falcon in the Disney+ hit series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which set several records for the streamer. Prior to that, he appeared as Wilson in multiple films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, most notably Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, as well as the Avengers films. He will also appear as Captain America in Captain America 4. His other credits include starring in Synchronic, Seberg, The Hurt Locker and Outside the Wire which he and Spire produced for Netflix.
Sony Pictures Television and PlayStation Productions’ The Last of Us is currently in production for HBO, from Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin, game creator Neil Druckmann and Game of Thrones exec producer Carolyn Strauss. It star Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey.
Mackie is repped by UTA and Inspire Entertainment. Smith is represented by Verve and 3Arts.