Martin Freeman is an actor that’s covered a lot of ground in his career and, as such, has developed a very strong, and very varied, following. The actor has appeared in a classic sitcom (BBC’s The Office), a grandiose fantasy trilogy (Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit films), a hit TV crime drama (FX’s Fargo), as the beloved sidekick Watson in the stellar Sherlock Holmes TV series, and even entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe earlier this year when he appeared in Captain America: Civil War. Now Freeman is going to check out something he’s never done before: A zombie movie.

The film, Cargo, is based on the celebrated 2013 Australian shortof the same name. The original was directed by Yolanda Ramke and Ben Howling, and the duo has been tapped to make their feature debut by making this new version of Cargo, with Freeman as their star. 

Cargo‘s premise sounds like it could pack a real punch, and like it uses well-known zombie genre conventions to ratchet up the tension in ways that could really grab your throat and tug at your heart strings. Freeman’s agent pointed out that it’s the film’s unique approach to the genre that he found to be “unexpectedly powerful,” and so he signed on despite these kinds of films being “not really his thing.”

Cargo centers on a father, stranded in rural Australia with his two year old daughter, who has been infected with a killer virus in the wake of a zombie pandemic. He has 48 hours before he’s set to transform into a violent monster, and so he’s trying desperately to find someone who could raise his daughter when the inevitable happens to him. His only hope may come in the form of an Aboriginal tribe, but they won’t be able to help him unless he’s able to earn the allegiance of a young Indigenous girl who’s on a similarly tragic quest. 

The Hollywood Reporter has provided us with this first-look image from Cargo:

While this is technically an Australian feature, I have a feeling it could cross over in much the same way that Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later did back in 2002, when the British flick became a worldwide hit for its unique take on the zombie genre. Either that, or it’ll turn out something like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Maggie. 

We shall see. 

Either way, this sounds like it’ll be a zombie film for grownups, and as the father of two small children- and as a Martin Freeman fan- you can count me in when Cargo eventually arrives in theaters stateside. 

SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter