You can currently catch Jon Hamm in the Apple TV+ series Your Friends & Neighbors, playing the role of a recently fired hedge fund manager who turns to illegal or unethical activities to keep up his luxurious lifestyle. But that's not all! The two-time Golden Globe Award-winning actor has just set his next acting gig. Coming from Sony Pictures Television, it's a thriller anthology series co-created by The Night Agent creator Shawn Ryan and Eileen Myers (Mad Dogs, Big Love). The two also serve as co-showrunners and executive producers.
Given the working title American Hostage, MGM+ has handed out a season order of eight episodes. It's based on the scripted psychological thriller podcast of the same name, which also stars Hamm. In this MGM+ series adaptation, Hamm will star as Fred Heckman, the same character he voiced on the podcast. He is also signed on as an executive producer alongside Connie Tavel, Sharon Hoffman, and Marney Hochman. The team behind the American Hostage podcast, Shawn Christensen and Gabriel Mason, is also executive producing.
This project has been in the works for a while now. Ryan developed American Hostage under his overall deal with Sony TV, which secured the rights to the podcast following its release in 2022. By late 2023, the core creative team for the series was in place, with Hamm attached as both star and executive producer. The project was then shopped around in 2024 and ultimately found a home at MGM+. It had been in development since fall 2024, but now things are officially moving forward as production gears up to begin in Winnipeg, Canada, this fall.
The first season takes place in the '70s and recounts the gripping true story of Fred Heckman, a respected Indianapolis radio broadcaster who finds himself at the center of a life-or-death situation when hostage-taker Tony Kiritsi demands that he be interviewed on his widely followed radio news program. While it has already been confirmed that Hamm will play Fred Heckman, the identity of the actor who will portray Tony Kiritsi remains unknown. As mentioned earlier, the series is an anthology. Each season will focus on a different hostage case.
Here's what head of MGM+, Michael Wright, had to say about the show's development via a statement:
"The combination of prolific producers Shawn Ryan and Eileen Myers, a singular talent like Jon Hamm, and our partners at Sony Pictures Television, is a match made in MGM+ heaven. This is a fascinating story about real people engaged in a real-time life-or-death struggle to keep a desperate hostage situation from spinning out of control, and I can’t think of a more gifted actor on whom to center the story than Jon.”
Katherine Pope, President of Sony Pictures Television Studio, also expressed her excitement about this new project in a statement.
"We couldn’t be more grateful to be making this show with our valued partners – MGM+, Shawn Ryan, Eileen Myers and Jon Hamm. An exploration of quiet heroism, American Hostage shines a light on our culture, revealing truths that still strongly resonate.”
As of right now, this is all that has been revealed about American Hostage at the moment. As more information comes out, we'll be sure to return and share everything. But for now, stay tuned to Show Snob!