Matt Reeves is making a Buster Keaton TV show starring Rami Malek

(Image credit: Universal)

The Batman director Matt Reeves is developing a limited series that will see Rami Malek play silent film star Buster Keaton.

According to Deadline, Matt Reeves will produce the series under his 6th & Idaho Productions banner with Ted Cohen (Succession, Veep) set to pen the script. The show will reportedly use the biography Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker's Life by James Curtis as its primary source material.

Keaton, an actor, comedian, and filmmaker, was best known for his deadpan expression in otherwise vibrant silent comedies. He was given an Academy Honorary Award at the 32nd Academy Awards, an honor that has gone to the likes of Judy Garland, Walt Disney, and Charlie Chaplin. The performer did all of his own stunts, which include leaping from a building, swinging through a waterfall, and jumping in front of a moving train. Johnny Knoxville cites Keaton as an inspiration for Jackass, even attempting a stunt from the 1928 movie Steamboat Bill Jr. in Jackass 2.

Malek is no stranger to biopics, as he played rock icon Freddie Mercury in 2018's Bohemian Rhapsody. The actor is also set to play an unnamed scientist in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, a biopic that centers on J. Robert Oppenheimer, a theoretical physicist widely known as the 'father of the Atomic Bomb.'

Reeves is currently hard at work at both a Batman spin-off series that follows Colin Farrell's Penguin and a sequel to the 2022 Robert Pattinson-led film.

Lauren Milici is a Senior Entertainment Writer for GamesRadar+ based in New York City. She previously reported on breaking news for The Independent's Indy100 and created TV and film listicles for Ranker. Her work has been published in Fandom, Nerdist, Paste Magazine, Vulture, PopSugar, Fangoria, and more.