Will Sense8 be the next big Netflix hit?

BLOCK off your weekend. The next big budget original Netflix series is about to drop, starring Daryl Hannah, and made by the team behind The Matrix.

Naveen Andrews Daryl Hannah

HE’S the go-to man for James Cameron, Ron Howard and Jerry Bruckheimer. Yet there’s a lot more to Hollywood screenwriter Joe Michael Straczynski than the blockbuster films like Thor and World War Z that he’s known for.

A man with big ideas and even bigger ambitions, the prolific 60-year-old famously once wrote a movie script in just 53 hours (Ninja Assassin, for those of you playing at home). Now he’s set to return to his television roots with the Wachowski siblings Lana and Andy — the duo behind The Matrix — for perhaps his most daring project yet: Sense8.

The 12-part Netflix original series debuts this week (Friday) amid a cacophony of hype for the production which follows the story of eight humans who find their minds and emotions linked.

After the resounding success of Daredevil, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Grace & Frankie any new show from the streaming service demands audiences stand up and take notice — and Sense8 perhaps more so than others.

Naveen Andrews and Daryl Hannah in a scene from Netflix's "Sense8". (Murray Close/Netflix via AP)

“Our secrets are often what defines us,” Straczynski tells news.com.au from his home in LA. “So what happens when we have these characters all around the world who can see what you see, know your secrets and know what you know?”

It’s a high concept notion and that’s where the American creative feels most comfortable, mixing commercial accessibility with the philosophical. It’s no surprise then that he found himself working with the Wachowskis whose big ideas either go right over audience heads (Jupiter Ascending) or deep into their hearts (Cloud Atlas).

“They’re very interested, like I am, in the idea that we’re all connected to each other and that we’re stronger with what unites us than what divides us,” he says.

“Whether you’re in Nairobi or Mexico City, the things you want primarily tend to be the same: the best opportunities for yourself and those you love. With that idea in mind we wanted to do something positive with our storytelling.”

Eight strangers become inextricably linked in Sense8.

For Straczynski — who has been winning fans and accolades in equal measure for his work in comic books and film recently — it meant returning to where he started out, in television. A playwright and journalist, he cut his teeth in Hollywood working on hit animated series He-Man and the Masters Of The Universe and She-Ra: Princess Of Power before moving on to classics Murder She Wrote and Walker Texas Ranger.

Yet it’s his science fiction series Babylon 5 that gained him legend status, winning Emmys and Hugo Awards all the while writing everything from fiction novels to Wonder Woman and Thor graphic novels for DC Comics and Marvel. Yeah, prolific only just begins to cover it.

Coincidentally it was his work on Babylon 5 and within the comic book industry that saw him gain two very famous friends in the Wachowski siblings. The brother and sister duo invited him out to the LA premiere of the final Matrix film as “massive fans” of his work and years later when they asked him to collaborate on a television series together, it was a no-brainer for Straczynski.

“That’s what unites the three of us I guess,” he says. “It’s this idea of the larger questions that bring people together. Lana and Andy have these 12 story brains and we all have these backgrounds in philosophy so we get into the big stuff pretty quick.”

Sense8 is philosophical, yet action packed.

Yet that doesn’t mean you can’t do it with style. The big budget show — which also stars Daryl Hannah — sees a host of Wachowski collaborators like Straczynski, James McTeigue (V For Vendetta) and Tom Tykwer (Cloud Atlas) team up again to push the envelope.

“The bigger the question you have to ask, the smaller you have to go,” he says. “The science fictional concept of Sense8 — being united mentally and telepathically — makes the whole greater than the some of its parts. Even if you can’t dial into all of the concepts or themes, you can connect to some of the characters and the personal struggles they’re going through.”

No one has done that more than James Cameron, says Straczynski, who has had the opportunity to work with the Terminator filmmaker several times. It was him that helped changed his outlook on how to mix the sheen of a commercial blockbuster with more challenging ideas.

“You write stories to have an impact and you write stories to move people to passion,” he says, “And James gets that. He once said to me ‘I thought science fiction was about familiar characters in unfamiliar settings but I was wrong and it took 10 years to realise that. It’s about familiar stories and themes in an unfamiliar setting.’ And he’s right: Terminator is a father and son story, but it’s not, and Aliens is a mother and daughter story even though it’s not. That kind of dualism is precisely what we’re trying to do with Sense8.”

It’s giveaway time again! We’ve got 15 x Double passes to Aloha starring Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone and Rachel McAdams. To win, like our news.com.au Entertainment Facebook page, comment in the Aloha post, and tell us in 25 words or less: ‘Where is the most romantic place you’ve ever been and why?’ Winners announced 4.30pm Friday 5 June. Click here for T&C’s. Good luck!