Elijah Wood has been tapped to star in BBC America’s “Dirk Gently,” an individual familiar with the casting told TheWrap on Tuesday.
The anthology series is an adaptation of the novel “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency,” by “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” author Douglas Adams.
According to BBC America, the series is “a comedic thriller that follows the bizarre adventures of eccentric ‘holistic’ detective Dirk Gently and his reluctant assistant Todd, as they wend their way through one big, seemingly insane mystery a season, crossing unlikely paths with a bevy of wild and sometimes dangerous characters, each episode landing them a few random steps closer to uncovering the truth.”
Wood will play Todd the assistant, who’s described as “just flat out better than Dirk at a lot of things.”
“He always attempts to solve matters with the fewest steps possible; despite being a compassionate, sweet, smarter-than-average man with biting wit, Todd often finds himself at the intersection of morally gray crossroads,” BBC America said of the character. “Thus, his bad habits of lying and stealing have dire consequences that he can’t put off forever, even though he tries. Todd’s not a bad person. He’s not a good person yet, either, but he’ll get there.”
AMC Studios, Ideate Media and IDW Entertainment are co-producing, with Circle of Confusion producing.
Max Landis (“Chronicle”) is writing the series.
Other television work by “Lord of the Rings” star Wood includes the FX comedy “Wilfred.”