Amazon pilot The Book of Strange New Things will see Haley Joel Osment co-star with Game of Thrones’ Richard Madden.
At first glance, one might think that Amazon’s television project The Book of Strange New Things is exercising shocking temerity, attempting a streaming series brandishing the words “Strange” and “Things” in the wake of Netflix phenomenon Stranger Things. However, that’s just a coincidence. In fact, the book on which Amazon’s pilot is based – focusing on colonial space drama – pre-dates the buzz-heavy show. Now, Amazon's pilot adds a co-star who famously saw dead people outside the Upside Down.
According to Deadline, Amazon’s untitled pilot based on Michel Faber’s 2014 sci-fi novel The Book of Strange New Things has cast Haley Joel Osment. The role in the would-be series will see Osment appearing alongside former Game of Thrones star Richard Madden, who plays a pastor named Peter Leigh. Madden's Peter – the pilot's protagonist – leaves his wife behind on Earth to embark on a mission to help colonize a desert planet dubbed Oasis to teach the indigenous denizens the philosophy of the Bible, which has been dubbed the “Book of Strange New Things.” Osment will play a character named Sy, the chief botanist of the Oasis colony and a former marijuana grower.
In the driver’s seat as a writer and executive producer for The Book of Strange New Things pilot is Matt Charman, who wrote the screenplay for 2015’s Tom Hanks-starring Cold War drama Bridge of Spies and UK miniseries’ Black Work and Our Zoo. Charman will be joined by producers Andy Harries and Lila Rawlings. Additionally, director Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland, The Eagle, Black Sea) will helm the pilot, which will manifest in an hour-long format.
The Book of Strange New Things sounds like an intriguing platform for Haley Joel Osment, who, after shaking his type-casting childhood success in 1999’s The Sixth Sense, 2000’s Pay It Forward and 2001 A.I. Artificial Intelligence, has found himself fielding an array of unorthodox projects, notably on television with Alpha House, The Spoils of Babylon, The Spoils Before Dying and recently appeared in Kevin Smith’s film Yoga Hosers. He's been showcasing impressive growth as a performer that would surprise those who still see him as the cute little kid who sees dead people.
The Book of Strange New Things (or whatever Amazon eventually names it,) is still in early stages without any significant dates revealed.