EXCLUSIVE: Fresh Produce Media, the podcast company behind series such as Jon Hamm-fronted The Big Lie, is launching a new dystopian sci-fi series starring Helen Hunt, Beau Bridges and Julia Rehwald.
The company is behind Alethea, which comes from Mark Henry Phillips, who worked on Serial, which debuts on Amazon’s Audible.
Alethea, which drops on August 10, is set 25 years into the future and takes place in a warped, hyper-capitalist world with echoes of our own. Instead of Covid, NYC’s been ravaged by a virus called Cato. And instead of a greed-fueled opioid epidemic, there’s an epidemic of addiction to Gamma – the drug created to treat Cato. Wall Street doesn’t run Manhattan, but instead, Telos (the drug company behind Gamma) does – and it’s more powerful than any investment bank.
In this alternate universe, everything seems to be humming along until the protagonist, a young scientist working for Telos named Sam Bixler, stumbles upon information that sends her on a quest to find her missing parents and into the orbit of the Resistance – a loose-knit group of cells fighting to take down the company that employs her.
Julia Rehwald, who starred in Netflix’s Fear Street, voices Bixler.
Telos came to power two decades earlier after the outbreak of Cato – a deadly virus that ravaged the greater New York City area. Telos launched Project Alethea to develop a treatment that contained the virus and solidified Telos’ complete dominance of New York City and beyond. Project Alethea treated thousands of Cato patients, including Sam’s mother Joan (Helen Hunt), who died in an experimental trial when Sam was 16. When Sam finds evidence that Telos may have lied about her mother’s death and that Joan may actually still be alive, she returns to her Hudson Valley hometown to share the information with her estranged father, Clint (Beau Bridges). She finds that he’s gone missing too. In his place, Sam encounters the resistance movement – of which her father is an integral member – doing the dangerous work of uncovering the truth about Project Alethea.
Sam agrees to spy for the Resistance in exchange for information about her missing parents. But working with them means saying goodbye to her comfortable, happy life within the Telos System. And it might mean putting herself and the people she cares about in harm’s way, too.
Mark Henry Phillips edited, scored, and – in his directorial debut – directed the series. Fresh Produce Media produced the series, and Katrina Day and Philomena Polefrone wrote the script.
Colin Moore, Chief Content Officer for Fresh Produce Media, said, “We are so excited for the premiere of Alethea. Like Audible, Fresh Produce prioritizes talent – not just the ‘on-air’ talent, but the talent behind the mic, too. That’s why we wanted Mark H. Phillips, who first made his name on Homecoming, Passenger List and Serial, to direct the star-studded cast, and Katrina Day and Philomena Polefrone to write the script. We’re really excited for you to hear the series, and to continue hearing from us as we roll out more multi-genre series throughout the rest of 2023 and beyond – stay tuned.”