Actor Chris Evans — best known as “Captain America” in the Marvel movies — has signed on to star in and executive produce the limited series “Defending Jacob,” which has been ordered straight-to-series at Apple, reports Variety.
The series is based on the 2012 best-selling novel of the same name by William Landay. It tells the story of a father whose 14 year old son is accused of murder. The series was created, written, and executive produced by Mark Bomback, who will also serve as showrunner. It will be produced by Paramount Television and Anonymous Content, with Rosalie Swedlin and Adam Shulman executive producing for Anonymous Content. Academy Award-nominee Morten Tyldum will executive produce and direct the series.
This will be Apple’s 25th scripted series. Upcoming original programming titles include “Amazing Stores,” “Are You Sleeping,” “Home,” “Little America,” “See,” “Swagger,” an untitled Damien Chazelle drama, an untitled Reese Witherspoon/Jennifer Anniston dreamed, “Dickinson” (a half-hour comedy starring Hailee Stenifeld), an untitled Ronald D. Moore drama, an untitled M. Night Shyamalan thriller series, a TV series adaption of “Foundation,” the Isaac Asimov science fiction novel trilogy, and the half-hour dramedy “Little Voices” from producers J.J. Abrams and Sara Bareilles, “Little America” from the screenwriters (Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani) of “The Big Sick” and producer/writer Lee Eisenberg, a drama series about pre-teen investigative reporter Hilde Lysiak, a TV series based on the “Time Bandits” movie, an English-language adaptation of the French short-form series Canal+, “See,” a world-building drama set in the future, a series based on the bestselling 2017 novel “Pachinko,” a half-hour scripted comedy from Rob McElhenney and Charlie Day, and a series produced by Anonymous Content and based on the New York Times article, “Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change.”
