‘Drive My Car’ Star Hidetoshi Nishijima Joins Rashida Jones In Apple TV+ Series ‘Sunny’

EXCLUSIVE: Hidetoshi Nishijima (Drive My Car) is set to star opposite Rashida Jones in Sunny, Apple TV+’s half-hour dark comedy series from A24.

Written by Katie Robbins based on the book Dark Manual by Japan-based Irish writer Colin O’Sullivan and to be directed Lucy Tcherniak, Sunny stars Jones as Suzie, an American woman living in Kyoto, Japan, whose life is upended when her husband (Nishijima) and son disappear in a mysterious plane crash. As “consolation” she’s given Sunny, one of a new class of domestic robots made by her husband’s electronics company. Though at first Suzie resents Sunny’s attempts to fill the void in her life, gradually they develop an unexpected friendship, as together they uncover the dark truth of what really happened to Suzie’s family, becoming dangerously enmeshed in a world Suzie never knew existed.

Nishijima will star as Masa Sakamoto, Suzie’s husband, and a brilliant roboticist.

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Robbins executive produces with Jones and Tcherniak, along with Ravi Nandan and Jess Lubben for A24. The series will film in Japan.

Nishijima headlined the acclaimed 2021 Japanese feature Drive My Car, directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi and written by Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe, which was nominated for four Oscars and won for Best International Feature Film. Nishijima earned several Best Actor awards for his performance, including one from the National Society of Film Critics. He is repped by Quarter Tone.