Robert De Niro is running out of time in “Zero Day” opening scene (exclusive)

When a cyberattack kills thousand of people, there's one man a fictional America can turn to: Robert De Niro.

De Niro serves as the star (and an executive producer) of Netflix's upcoming limited series Zero Day. From co-creators, writers, and EPs Eric Newman and Noah Oppenheim, the thriller follows De Niro's George Mullen, a highly respected former U.S. president, as he's tasked with leading an investigation into the aforementioned cyberattack. And much like the characters they write, Newman and Oppenheim knew they needed to find the right person for the role.

"When you meet President Mullen, he’s someone the entire country feels comfortable turning to in a moment of crisis," Oppenheim tells Entertainment Weekly. "And in order for that to land right out of the gate, you need an actor with decades of goodwill and respect from the audience."

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Newman adds, "I think the part called for someone who had a certain level of gravitas, who had a legacy as one of America’s most significant actors." And it's Newman who first mentioned the idea for the show to De Niro over dinner. "He loved it, and from that point forward he became our partner. We wrote it for him, and he was involved every step of the way."

The series follows Mullen as he struggles just as much with his own mind as he does with discovering the truth behind the attack. "For us, the show is very much about our country and our world’s relationship with the truth. Having a protagonist who questions everything he’s seeing seemed very on theme," Newman says.

The origin of the story actually ties a bit into real life. "I’ve been friends with Michael Schmidt, an investigative reporter for the New York Times, for 20 years," Oppenheim says. "He told me about a story he’d been working on, about a senior government official who many believed was in the early stages of dementia. And this predated any similar questions being raised about President Biden’s condition. Subsequently, I met up with my friend Eric for a drink."

Newman continues, "I had the good fortune of asking Noah, 'Is there a story out there that would alarm us that you’re not willing to report on?' And he said, 'There’s nothing that we wouldn’t be willing to report on, but there are certain stories that we haven’t nailed down.' And I understood the stakes of this story immediately."

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Thankfully, De Niro's Mullen is surrounded by an impressive cast of characters to help him figure things out. Zero Day also stars Jesse Plemons, Angela Bassett, Connie Britton, Lizzy Caplan, Dan Stevens, and more.

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For Newman and Oppenheim, the show's greatest challenge had nothing to do with an elaborate mystery or even assembling such an impressive roster. "The most difficult thing was creating a world that feels very much like the insane, surprising one we live in," Oppenheim says, with Newman adding, "We live in an era of truth that’s stranger than fiction, and the biggest challenge for us was keeping up with the shifting perils of the world we live in."

Above, you can watch the exclusive opening scene of Zero Day, which premieres Thursday, Feb. 20, on Netflix.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly