The Josh Hartnett-aissance strongly continues with The Fear Index

Rory Cashin

Brought to you by NOW

It comes from the Irish director of Love/Hate, Line of Duty and Peaky Blinders.

Of all the actors that feel like they’re deserving of a massive comeback, Josh Hartnett has got to be close to the top of that list.

Getting his start in 1998’s Halloween: H20, he had an incredible run of very popular movies – The Faculty, The Virgin Suicides, Pearl Harbour, 40 Days and 40 Nights, Black Hawk Down, Sin City, 30 Days of Night, Lucky Number Slevin, a leading role in hit series Penny Dreadful… but then he decided to take a step away from the spotlight.

Now he is very much on the comeback trail, with two collaborations with both Jason Statham and director Guy Ritchie (2021’s Wrath of Man, as well as Operation Fortune, due in Irish cinemas this March), plus he’s been lined up for Christopher Nolan’s new movie Oppenheimer, starring opposite Cillian Murphy as the creator of the atomic bomb.

But before that, he’s got brand-new mini-series The Fear Index, which feels like what might happen if The Bourne Identity was a psychological thriller, and will be available to watch with from Thursday, 10 February with your NOW Entertainment Membership.

Based on the hit novel by Robert Harris (Fatherland, Archangel), it tells the story of Dr. Alex Hoffman (Hartnett), who has created an algorithm that can analyse the stock market and use predict who and when to make the most money using the most basic of human emotions: fear.

However, following a violent home invasion, Hoffman begins to suspect that his algorithm has grabbed the attention of some truly scary people, and he’s no longer sure he can trust anyone in his life, including his wife or his best friend and business partner.

Directed by Dublin-born David Caffrey (who has previously directed episodes of Love/Hate, Line of Duty and Peaky Blinders), the psychological horror is sweatily cranked up throughout each episode, fully putting you in the middle of Hoffman’s increasingly paranoia-filled world.

All four episodes of the mini-series are available to watch with your NOW Entertainment Membership from Thursday, 10 February. Check out the trailer for the show right here: