The Channel 4 conspiracy thriller will be remade for the US by HBO, with House of Cards’ David Fincher at the helm, while Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn will write

HBO has greenlit a US remake of Channel 4’s Utopia, the dystopian thriller about a group of conspiracy theorists brought together by a mysterious comic book. Cinematic heavyweight David Fincher will direct the first episode and executive produce the show, as he did with Netflix’s House of Cards, while Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl, is on board to write the screenplay. Dennis Kelly, who created the original version, will be involved as executive producer.

The project will reunite Fincher and Flynn, who recently worked together on the film adaptation of Flynn’s novel Gone Girl, due for release in cinemas later this year.

The original Utopia, a six-part series, aired on Channel 4 in January 2013 and starred Neil Maskell, Alexandra Roach, and Adeel Akhtar, with Fiona O’Shaughnessy playing the enigmatic Jessica Hyde. It concerned a group of people hunting for pages of a missing comic book, which is believed to contain information about the future of the world. Its distinctive tone, complex plot and luscious visual style marked it as one of the most original British dramas of recent years. In December, it was voted the third best show of 2013 by Guardian critics.

“You’re constantly asked to adjust your moral take on what you’re seeing. Each one of them reaches a moral impasse, as in Breaking Bad, and they have to make difficult decisions without completely losing the audience’s sympathy. In a world where it’s never clear who is bad and who is good – we’re constantly shifting allegiance. It’s the opposite of a passive viewing experience and almost a physical workout at times,” wrote Richard Vine in December.



A second series is currently filming and will air on Channel 4 this summer.