Don Cheadle (Avengers: Infinity War, Black Monday), Emily Mortimer (Mary Poppins Returns, Doll & Em) and Helena Howard (Madeline’s Madeline, The Wilds) are set to star in Don’t Look Deeper, a sci-fi drama series for Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman’s short-form video platform Quibi. The series is a co-production between New Form, a Whistle-owned company, and Doug Liman’s 30 Ninjas for Quibi. Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight, Red Riding Hood) is attached to direct and executive produce.

Catherine Hardwicke Photo: Gilles Bensimon

Co-written by Lost co-creator Jeffrey Lieber, who also serves as showrunner, and Charlie McDonnell, Don’t Look Deeper is set in Merced, California, “fifteen minutes into the future.” It centers on a high school senior who can’t seem to shake the feeling that something about her just isn’t right. And that something is… she’s not human… not one of us. This revelation of what she really is, where she comes from, and who has started looking for her, sets in motion a series of events that suddenly puts her entire life in jeopardy.

Lieber, McDonnell and Hardwicke executive produce with Kathleen Grace and Laura Schwartz for New Form and Jed Weintrob and Julina Tatlock for 30 Ninjas.

Don’t Look Deeper joins Quibi’s growing slate, which includes comedy series Chrissy’s Court, starring Chrissy Teigen and her mom, and comedy Dummy starring and executive produced by Anna Kendrick, from Deadbeat co-creator Cody Heller and independent studio wiip. The series are part of Quibi’s inaugural slate of programming featuring A-list talent in front and behind the camera, with projects from Steven Spielberg, Steven Soderbergh, Sam Raimi, Antoine Fuqua, Jason Blum and Guillermo del Toro in the works. Naomi Watts had been rumored to star in the Blumhouse series.

Cheadle is repped by UTA and Viewpoint. Mortimer is repped by UTA, Lighthouse Management + Media and Tavistock Wood. Howard is repped by WME and Circle Of Confusion.