Amazon Acquires Original Drama Absentia for US

Amazon has announced that it will premiere the critically-acclaimed thriller series Absentia exclusively on Prime Video in the United States in 2018, as well as in select markets globally, including Australia, Austria, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, Turkey and the U.K.

Starring and executive produced by Castle‘s Stana Katic, Absentia centers on FBI agent Emily Byrne (Katic). While hunting one of Boston’s most notorious serial killers, Agent Byrne disappears without a trace and is declared dead. Six years later, Emily is found in a cabin in the woods, barely alive, and with no memory of the years she was missing. Returning home to learn her husband has remarried and her son is being raised by another woman, she soon finds herself implicated in a new series of murders.

Absentia also stars Patrick Heusinger (Jack Reacher: Never Go Back) as Emily’s husband and fellow FBI agent Nick who struggles with the guilt that he stopped looking for Emily, and his feelings for her that have resurfaced – especially now that he’s married to another woman. Nick is now tasked with the unthinkable: having to bring Emily into custody as the prime suspect in a string of shocking new murders. Forced to prove her innocence, Emily goes on the run. But the closer Emily gets to answers, the more she puts herself and her family in danger. Can she prove her innocence before it is too late and discover the truth about her abduction?

In addition to Katic and Heusinger, Absentia‘s ensemble cast includes Cara Theobold (Downton Abbey), Neil Jackson (Sleepy Hollow), Angel Bonanni (False Flag), Richard Brake (Game of Thrones), Ralph Ineson (Game of Thrones), Paul Freeman (The Dogs of War), Bruno Bichir (Narcos) and Patrick McAuley (The Conjuring 2).

Absentia opened this year’s Monte Carlo Television Festival to critical acclaim and was the number-one program in its timeslot when it debuted in Spain, Portugal, Romania and Poland on SPTN’s AXN channels.

The series is executive produced and directed by Oded Ruskin (False Flag), alongside executive producers Matt Cirulnick (South Beach), Julie Glucksman, Katic and Maria Feldman (False Flag, Fauda). The series was created by Gaia Violo and Cirulnick and is based on a pilot script originally written by Violo.

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