Ensuring the continued employment of Hollywood’s dove wranglers, Variety reports that John Woo, fresh off of the sequel to his Chinese historical epic The Crossing, has signed on to executive produce a scripted TV series, Cognition. Billed as a “neo-noir” crime thriller (although “neon noir” would be equally appropriate here), the series will cover two serial-killer investigations taking place in two time periods across two continents.
The main storyline will take place in “the Far East” (probably Hong Kong), where American ex-detective Travis Augustine is undergoing a controversial, untested treatment for his cancer. Then a serial killer with an M.O. eerily similar to one Augustine hunted back in the Midwest starts stalking the city, and Augustine is “pulled back in to the vicious cycle he’s trying to escape.” Plus there’s some Minority Report-meets-Eternal Sunshine-type memory stuff, thus the name.
Cognition was written and will be directed by Misfits director Alex Garcia Lopez, although hopefully he’ll draw influence from his famous executive producer, namely by casting Nicolas Cage and telling him, “just do what you did in Face/Off.” Cognition doesn’t have a network attached yet, but begins filming next year.