When you see a lead role for a new TV series described as “a police officer entangled in the criminal underbelly of Los Angeles,” is Miles Teller the first actor who comes to your mind?
According to The Hollywood Reporter, that’s exactly the role Teller will play in a new dramatic series for Amazon created by Nicolas Winding Refn (The Neon Demon), titled Too Old to Die Young. The series “explores a hidden world of assassins,” with the following synopsis:
“Die Young tells of a grieving police officer who, along with the man who shot his partner, finds himself in an underworld filled with working-class hit men, Yakuza soldiers, cartel assassins sent from Mexico, Russian mafia captains and gangs of teen killers. Amazon, which made the casting announcement on Monday, says the series will follow ‘killers’ existential journeys in becoming samurai.'”
With underground criminals and assassins, this series sounds a bit like Refn’s 2013 film, Only God Forgives. That wasn’t a good movie, even if you might enjoy seeing Ryan Gosling get beat up. But besides the similar elements, mentioning the movie provides an excuse to embed this trailer with Suuns’ “2020” playing on the soundtrack.
Refn, perhaps best known for Drive (2011) and Bronson (2008), will direct the entire series and co-wrote it with Ed Brubaker. Brubaker was a writer and supervising producer on Westworld, but made his name writing crime fiction comic books like Criminal, The Fade In and Fatale. He also had acclaimed runs with Marvel Comics on Daredevil and Captain America, during which he created the Winter Soldier.
Teller seems like a curious choice for this, largely because he looks so young. But the role is described as a police officer and not, say, a detective. So it’s not like Teller is being asked to play some grizzled cop. Perhaps the idea is also that a young officer is pulled into a world he’s not equipped to handle.
Considering that Refn has always cast his projects well, Teller probably deserves the benefit of the doubt. Even if his public persona comes off as kind of jerky, he’s a strong actor who’s taken some intriguing roles lately in films like War Dogs and Bleed For This. This year, Teller is playing an Iraq War vet suffering from PTSD in Thank You For Your Service and a firefighter who lost 19 members of his crew in Granite Mountain. It’s certainly notable that someone with an established film career is doing prestige television with Amazon, surely lured by working with Refn.
Too Old to Die Young is set to begin filming this fall with a 2018 debut on Amazon. The series will be 10 episodes.
