It’s the story of a tech genius whose life turns into a waking nightmare. 

Sky has released the trailer for it’s upcoming thriller The Fear Index, based on the 2011 Robert Harris novel.

A four-part “limited series”, it stars Josh Hartnett (Penny Dreadful) as Dr Alex Hoffman, a technology genius, with Arsher Ali as Hugo, his hedge fund business partner and best friend. Also in the cast are Leila Farzad (I Hate Suzie) as Gabby Hoffman and Grégory Montel  as Detective Leclerc.

Here’s the premise:

Dr Alex Hoffman is launching VIXAL-4 to investors - an AI-driven system that exploits fear in the financial markets and operates at lightning speed to make big returns. The promise is billions, the rich are ready to get richer… but this is not the day Alex and Hugo had planned. What follows is a terrifying journey through the worst 24 hours of Alex’s life - cutting across reality, memory and paranoid fantasy, forcing him to question everything he sees with his own eyes. 

In the pulse of Geneva’s financial district, Alex’s sanity is shaken after he is viciously attacked at his home by a man who knows all of his security codes. After more unexplained occurrences, Alex becomes convinced he’s being framed. But as secrets surface from his past, will anyone believe that he isn’t just losing his mind?

Detective Leclerc , assigned to Alex’s case, struggles to work this former CERN scientist out. Hoffman’s talented artist wife, Gabby might just be losing patience this time, whilst Hugo’s only concern is the billion-dollar business on the line. Invention can be lonely, and in a modern world of AI, capitalism and technological breakthroughs, Dr Alex Hoffman is about to learn the hard way how destructive his creation might be…

With the log line “It’s time to pay the price”, the trailer looks tense and terrifying as we see Hoffman’s life disintegrate around him.

The story has been adapted by Paul Andrew Williams (Broadchurch) and Caroline Bartleet and is directed by David Caffrey (The Alienist, Peaky Blinders). The producer is Nuala O’Leary. Executive producers are Andy Harries and Sharon Hughff for Left Bank Pictures, and Paul Gilbert for Sky Studios.

The Fear Index is a Sky Original, due to land on Sky Atlantic and NOW in February 2022,