Filming has begun on Lucy Kirkwood’s Chimerica, a powerful and timely 4-part thriller about a photojournalist who tries to salvage his career when he’s accused of doctoring one of his award-winning photographs.

SAG Award-winning Alessandro Nivola (American Hustle, A Most Violent Year, Face/Off) stars as Lee Berger, a dedicated American photojournalist and passionate idealist who has lost his way after years of working in war zones while trying to live up to his early success with the electrifying photograph he took as a young man nearly 30 years ago in Tiananmen Square – an image of a man in a white shirt, a carrier bag in each hand, standing up to the might of the Chinese military, referred to as the Tank Man. But when accusations of fake news are levelled against him, his world falls apart. Desperate to reclaim his credibility, and remember the photographer he used to be, Lee sets out on a journey to find the Tank Man, convinced he is alive and well and living in New York City.

Emmy Award winner Cherry Jones (Transparent, The Handmaid’s Tale, 24) stars as Mel Kincaid, Lee’s old friend and colleague, fiercely intellectual and recently sober. Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe-nominated Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda, The Hollow Crown, The Slap) stars as Tessa Kendrick, a corporate-minded market researcher who crosses Lee’s path in China and at home in NYC. F. Murray Abraham (Homeland, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Inside Llewelyn Davis) stars as Lee’s long-time mentor, news editor Frank Sams, and Terry Chen (Jessica Jones, Unreal) is Zhang Lin, a friend from Lee’s time abroad in China. Young Lee Berger will be played by Ty Simpkins (Jurassic World, Iron Man 3).

Based on Lucy Kirkwood’s critically-acclaimed and Olivier Award-winning stage play, Chimerica is a powerful 4x 60’ thriller that explores not just the relationship between East and West, but also some of the most urgent issues affecting society today. Set against the run-up to the 2016 US Presidential election, the original play has been updated to reflect the giddying political changes of the last two years. The fictional series will bring into even sharper focus vital issues such as fake news, the criminalisation of political protest, , our growing ease with the manipulation of fact and image,and the battle between present and future superpowers .

BAFTA nominee Michael Keillor (Line of Duty, Strike, Critical) is directing the series. Chimerica was commissioned for Channel 4 by Beth Willis, Head of Drama, and Simon Maxwell, Head of International Drama. The series is produced by Playground (Wolf Hall, Howards End, Little Women) with Colin Callender and Sophie Gardiner as Executive Producers. Lucy Kirkwood will also serve as an Executive Producer. The producer is Adrian Sturges (Fearless, The Enfield Haunting, The Disappearance of Alice Creed).

About Playground

Playground is a New York and London based television, film and theatre production company founded in 2012 by award-winning producer Colin Callender. It is committed to producing smart, entertaining drama for the screen and the stage bringing together the finest US and UK talent from the worlds of theatre, film, and television.

Playground has produced over 65 hours of primetime television drama garnering 15 Emmy nominations, 22 BAFTA nominations, and 12 Golden Globe nominations, including winning a Golden Globe for Best Miniseries.

Recent productions include Wolf Hall, the BAFTA, Golden Globe and Peabody Award winning miniseries starring Mark Rylance, Damian Lewis and Claire Foy for the BBC and Masterpiece, and The Dresser, the RTS winning television adaptation of Ronald Harwood’s acclaimed play starring Ian McKellen and Anthony Hopkins and directed by Richard Eyre for the BBC and Starz, The White Princess, a limited series for Starz drawn from the bestselling book by Philippa Gregory, Howards End, Academy Award-winner Kenneth Lonergan’s adaptation of E.M. Forster’s classic novel starring Hayley Atwell, Matthew Macfadyen and Tracey Ullman directed by Hettie Macdonald for the BBC and Starz, Little Women adapted by Heidi Thomas and starring Emily Watson, Michael Gambon and Angela Lansbury for the BBC and Masterpiece, and King Lear starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson and directed by Richard Eyre for the BBC and Amazon.

Playground’s previous theatre productions on Broadway include: Nora Ephron’s Tony-nominated Lucky Guy directed by George C. Wolfe starring Tom Hanks in his Broadway debut, Harvey Fierstein’s Tony-nominated Casa Valentina directed by Joe Mantello, the Tony award-winning revival of musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Jez Butterworth’s The River directed by Ian Rickson starring Hugh Jackman, and Kenneth Branagh and Rob Ashford’s critically acclaimed groundbreaking production of Macbeth at The Park Avenue Armory in New York, and John Tiffany's The Glass Menagerie in the West End.

Playground, in partnership with Sonia Friedman Productions, recently launched a production of the West End record-breaking hit two-part play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway. Other current theatre productions include the Tony Award-winning best musical Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway and, in the West End, in partnership with Sonia Friedman Productions, Casey Nicholaw’s Dreamgirls.