Showtime has released the first five minutes of the upcoming drama series The Man Who Fell to Earth following its SXSW world premiere today. The series will debut on Sunday, April 24 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
The new series stars Oscar nominees Chiwetel Ejiofor and Naomie Harris, along with Jimmi Simpson, Rob Delaney, Sonya Cassidy, Joana Ribeiro, Annelle Olaleye, Kate Mulgrew, Clarke Peters and Bill Nighy.
Custom posters at the Festival will include a unique QR code linking to the first 5 minutes of the series, and non-festival fans can watch and share the first five minutes using the player below.
Inspired by the Walter Tevis novel of the same name (check price at Amazon) and the iconic David Bowie film, The Man Who Fell to Earth will follow a new alien character (Ejiofor) who arrives on Earth at a turning point in human evolution and must confront his own past to determine our future.
Harris plays Justin Falls, a brilliant scientist and engineer who must conquer her own demons in the race to save two worlds.
The Man Who Fell to Earth is executive produced by Alex Kurtzman, Jenny Lumet, John Hlavin, Sarah Timberman, Carl Beverly, Heather Kadin, Aaron Baiers, Chiwetel Ejiofor and STUDIOCANAL’s Rola Bauer and Françoise Guyonnet.
The series is produced by CBS Studios in association with Secret Hideout and Timberman/Beverly.
STUDIOCANAL owns the rights to both Walter Tevis’s book and the Nicolas Roeg film with David Bowie. The series is distributed internationally by Paramount Global Distribution Group.
In case you missed it, you can still watch the official trailer here. Are you going to watch the series on Showtime? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Tevis’s book is officially described as follows: “Thomas Jerome Newton, an extraterrestrial from the planet Anthea, which has been devastated by a series of nuclear wars, lands on Earth, in Kentucky, disguised as a human, with the intention of saving his own people from extinction.
“He arrives laden with gold and diamond rings, which he pawns in local pawn shops to acquire some start-up money. On Anthea, he learned the language and customs of the United States by watching television.
“Antheans are twice as intelligent as human beings, and with some capital from the sale of the rings in hand, Newton visits the office of Oliver Farnsworth, the best patent lawyer in the country, and through him licenses the patents for some very advanced Anthean technology.
“He amasses a fortune and begins to build a spaceship to help the last 300 Antheans migrate to Earth. Along the way, he acquires a hillbilly housekeeper, Betty Jo, who introduces Newton to alcohol.
“He also attracts the attention of Nathan Bryce, a chemistry professor in Iowa, who is intrigued by some of the new products Newton’s company brings to the market and already suspects that Newton may be an alien being.
“Bryce tracks him down, and Newton offers him a job running his laboratory, working from a very advanced portfolio of technical specifications on the spaceship.
“Newton has also attracted the attention of the FBI and the CIA, who arrest him and accidentally blind him during their examination of him. When he is released after months of confinement, he sinks more deeply into alcoholism and abandons his spaceship.”
Mirko Parlevliet has been reporting on the entertainment industry since 1998 and founded Vital Thrills in 2018 to cover the latest news on streaming, movies, TV, and video games.