Tom Hiddleston to star in Apple TV+ limited series The White Darkness

Streaming service Apple TV+ has handed green lights to two limited series, including Tom Hiddleston-led drama The White Darkness.

Tom Hiddleston

The project, based on a non-fiction book of the same name by US author and journalist David Grann, comes from Apple Studios and Universal Content Productions.

It was developed by Soo Hugh (Pachinko, The Terror), who will serve as co-showrunner with Mark Heyman (Black Swan, Strange Angel). Executive producing, alongside Hiddleston, Hugh and Heyman, is Theresa Kang-Lowe (Pachinko) through her company Blue Marble Pictures, which has an overall deal with Apple TV+.

The White Darkness follows Henry Worsley (Hiddleston), a devoted family man who is also deeply obsessed with adventure, manifesting in an epic journey crossing Antarctica on foot.

Hiddleston also stars in upcoming Apple TV+ original The Essex Serpent.

The streamer has also greenlit The Big Cigar, a six-episode drama focusing on the Black Panthers, from Warner Bros Television.

Produced and written by Jim Hecht, co-creator of HBO’s Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, the project is based on a Playboy magazine article. It tells the story of how Black Panther leader Huey P Newton relied on his best friend, Bert Schneider, the Hollywood producer behind Easy Rider, to elude a nationwide manhunt and escape to Cuba while being pursued into exile by the FBI.

Janine Sherman Barrois (Claws, The Kings of Napa) is executive producer and showrunner, with Don Cheadle (No Sudden Move, Black Monday) on board to direct and executive produce the first two episodes.

Barrois is exec producing through her Folding Chair Productions, which has an overall deal with Warner Bros Television Group. Joshuah Bearman, Joshua Davis and Arthur Spector are producing through their prodco Epic, a division of Vox Media Studios.