'The Last Days Of Ptolemy Grey' Series Will Be Directed By 'The White Tiger' Filmmaker Ramin Bahrani

The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, an upcoming limited series at AppleTV+ that has Samuel L. Jackson on board to star, has found a director and added a new cast member to the "deeply engaging mystery" show.Ramin Bahrani, the acclaimed filmmaker behind movies like Man Push Cart, 99 Homes, and Netflix's recent The White Tiger, will get behind the camera to direct and executive produce the series, while Dominique Fishback, the actress who has been making waves with her performance in Judas and the Black Messiah, has been added to the show's cast. Learn more about the project below.

Apple has announced that Ramin Bahrani is on board to direct and serve as an EP on The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, which has Samuel L. Jackson in the title role of Grey, "a 91 year old man forgotten by his family, by his friends, by even himself. On the brink of sinking even deeper into a lonely dementia, Ptolemy experiences a seismic shift when he's given the tremendous opportunity to briefly regain his memories, and uses this precious and fleeting lucidity to solve his nephew's death and come to terms with his past."

I have not seen all of Bahrani's movies, but the ones I have seen indicate that he's a deeply empathetic, humanist filmmaker. This project sounds a bit more genre-based than the types of things he's known for, but I'm excited to see what he does with this story across six episodes of television.

Fishback, whose other credits include HBO's Show Me a Hero and The Deuce and Netflix's Project Power, will play a character named Robyn, described as "a friend of the family who helps Ptolemy." She recently turned in a quiet but powerful performance in Judas and the Black Messiah as Deborah Johnson, the activist who strikes up a romance with Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, Jr., and hopefully the attention she's getting for her work in that film will lead to Fishback becoming a household name.

The show is based on author Walter Mosley's 2011 novel, and Mosley will adapt his book for the screen. The author and screenwriter has written over 60 books, and his first novel, Devil with a Blue Dress, was adapted into a 1995 noir film starring Denzel Washington as Easy Rawlins, a detective who would go on to become one of Mosley's most famous characters. Mosley is now working on a new show dedicated to that character.