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Justin Hartley To Star In ‘The Never Game’ TV Adaptation In Works At 20th Television, Will EP With Ken Olin

Nellie Andreeva
·2 min read

EXCLUSIVE: This Is Us star Justin Hartley has teamed with the series’ director/executive producer Ken Olin to option the rights to Jeffery Deaver’s 2019 thriller novel, The Never Game.

Hartley is attached to star in the potential first season and Olin is set to direct the project, which Hartley’s ChangeUp Productions and Olin’s Afterportsmouth Productions will develop and produce under the companies’ deals at 20th Television.

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. - Credit: Courtesy photo
. - Credit: Courtesy photo

Courtesy photo

Michael Cooney (Identity) will pen the drama adaptation and will executive produce with Hartley and Olin. Additional producers include Roxy Olin, Head of Afterportsmouth Productions, and Julianna LaRosa, Head of ChangeUp Productions.

Written by Cooney based on the New York Times Book Review Top 10 crime novel of the year, The Never Game follows Colter Shaw (Hartley), who travels the country in his old-school RV to help police and private citizens solve crimes and locate missing persons, until his latest case changes everything. This time, it’s personal. Shaw finds himself caught in a cat-and-mouse game, risking his own life to save the victims. He soon learns that he isn’t the only one on the hunt: Someone is on his trail and closing fast.

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Hartley’s Shaw is a reward seeker raised by survivalists off the grid. He and his siblings were schooled by their parents, former professors who fled the city for safety, and taught the rules of survival, or “The Never Game,” as their father called it before he was murdered.

Hartley stars as Kevin Pearson on NBC/20th’s acclaimed drama series This Is Us, now in its fifth season, on which he also has directed. In features, Hartley’s recent credits include Universal Pictures’ The Hunt, Little and A Bad Moms Christmas from STX Entertainment. He is repped by CAA and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.

Olin is This Is Us‘ directing executive producer. His credits include Thirtysomething, Brothers & Sisters and Alias. Olin is repped by WME and Jackoway Austen Tyerman. Cooney is repped by UTA.

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