All you need to know about Netflix thriller series Eric starring Benedict Cumberbatch

Virgin Radio

6 Feb 2023, 18:08

Netflix is the gift that keeps on giving and we can barely get up off of our sofas. The streaming giant is serving up more good small screen news is joining creative forces with playwright Abi Morgan (The Iron Lady/River) to develop Eric, a thriller set in 1980's New York.

The 'tense and surprising' upcoming drama was announced by Netflix UK in November 2021 alongside other titles including Supacell, One Day, The F**k It Bucket and Kaos.

Jane Featherstone and Lucy Dyke are exec producers for British studio SISTER (Chernobyl) teaming up with Morgan for Little Chick Productions.

“When Edgar, a young boy goes missing in 1980s Manhattan, his grief-stricken father Vincent, a puppeteer on America’s leading kids’ TV show, finds solace through his friendship with Eric, the monster that lives under Edgar’s bed.

"In his quest to find the truth to Edgar’s disappearance, Vincent is forced into the dark shadows of a city rife with corruption to discover that the real monsters live much closer to home. Set against the backdrop of the 1980s AIDS epidemic, Detective Ledroit, tasked to uncover internal corruption in the NYPD, finds himself drawn into the search for Edgar, while privately coming to terms with secrets of his own.”

Starring in the show is Academy Award nominated Benedict Cumberbatch as Vincent Sullivan. The Power of the Dog actor is also set to star in the upcoming adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar by director Wes Anderson.

Joining him for the Netflix offering is Donald Sage Mackay (The Pentaverate) as Jerry, Gaby Hoffmann as Cassie Anderson in her Netflix debut, The US Office's David Denman as Matteo Cripp, Dan Fogler (Fantastic Beasts) as Lennie Wilson and Clarke Peters as George Lovett (The Wire).

Other confirmed cast include: Roberta Colindrez as Ronnie, Phoebe Nicholls as Anne Anderson, McKinley Belcher III as Detective Michael Ledroit, Adepro Oduye as Cecile Rochelle, Alexis Molnar as Raya, Bamar Kane as Yuusuf Egbe and Ivan Morris Howe as Edgar Anderson,

Creator, Writer & Executive Producer Abi Morgan said: “Eric is a dark and crazy journey into the heart of 1980’s New York, and the good bad and ugly world of Vincent, a genius puppeteer on one of America’s leading kids TV shows. The chance to work with Benedict and the creative team at Sister and Netflix, is irresistible. With Lucy Forbes at the directorial helm, I feel fortunate to be working at a time of such great creativity in our industry. Fingers crossed Eric will be a welcome addition.”

Executive Producers Jane Featherstone and Lucy Dyke said: “When Abi first pitched ERIC to us it gave us goosebumps. It is an extraordinary piece of writing, inspired by Abi’s experience of New York in the mid 1980s, a city rotten to its core but on the cusp of change.

"She writes both a tense thriller and an intimate portrait of a delusional father searching for his child, shadowed by a monster named Eric. We are thrilled that ERIC will be led by the multi-award-winning Benedict Cumberbatch and directed by the brilliant Lucy Forbes. Eric is set to be an incredibly unique and special limited series and we are overjoyed to be collaborating once more with our long-time creative partner Abi on it.”

The series, which began filming on December 5, 2022 and is due to conclude in late May 2023, will be shot in Budapest in Hungary and New York, USA.

Insiders have suggested the earliest release date for Eric will be early 2024.

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