EXCLUSIVE: Greg Kinnear is in talks to star in Fox Networks Group’s European remake of War of the Worlds.

I hear that the actor, who was most recently in the sixth season of Netflix’s House of Cards, has been circling the script, which was written by Misfits’ Howard Overman, but that a deal has not yet been struck.

Kinnear would be a big get for the ambitious project, which is Fox Networks Group Europe and Africa’s second original commission following Deep State, and is co-produced by France’s Canal+. It is produced by Urban Myth Films, Overman’s Studiocanal-backed indie that he runs with Johnny Caps and Julian Murphy.

It is currently in pre-production and sources close to production have told Deadline that it is set to start full production next year.

Set in the present day, it will be a reimagined telling of HG Wells’ alien invasion story.

It will air on Canal+ in France and on Fox across 50 territories across Europe and Africa. Studiocanal will distribute internationally. The show will be executive produced by Overman, Murphy and Capps.

It comes as the BBC is set to launch its own take on the classic sci-fi story. The Big Short’s Rafe Spall and Poldark’s Eleanor Tomlinson are to lead the cast of the Mammoth Screen-produced BBC adaptation alongside Trainspotting’s Robert Carlyle and Sherlock’s Rupert Graves, which is set in Edwardian England, rather than America.

Kinnear is repped by WME and attorney Rick Genow.