Ana de Armas and Jennifer Connelly in Talks to Team Up for Apple TV+ Spy Thriller Safe Houses
Apple is lining up Safe Houses, a high-stakes espionage thriller, with Ana de Armas and Jennifer Connelly in talks to headline.
Ana de Armas and Jennifer Connelly are lining up to share the screen in an Apple espionage series called Safe Houses. Two heavy hitters, one spy thriller, plenty of trouble brewing.
The setup
Safe Houses adapts Dan Fesperman’s novel into an eight-episode thriller set right after a senior CIA official gets killed in Madrid. De Armas would play Sofia Jiménez, a former agency operative on the run and blamed for the murder. Connelly would be Ambassador Elizabeth Winthrop, the dead man’s widow, who starts digging from her side of the diplomatic world. Both women chase the same truth from opposite ends, and what they peel back is the kind of conspiracy that doesn’t stay local.
The team
- Creator/Showrunner: Gideon Raff, the mind behind the original Israeli series Prisoners of War (which later became Homeland)
- Studios: Apple Studios teaming with Wiip
- Directors: Otto Bathurst handling the opening block; Raff stepping in to direct select episodes as well
- Development: Raff developed the series with Mike Seid
- Executive producers: Gideon Raff, Alexandra Milchan, Paul Lee, David Flynn
- Season size: 8 episodes
Why this pairing works
The premise is clean and punchy: a fugitive agent and a grieving ambassador circling the same murder from different circles of power. Madrid gives it flavor. The dual-lead structure gives it stakes. And yes, putting de Armas and Connelly on a collision course is exactly the kind of casting that makes you clear the queue.
Where else to spot them
De Armas most recently headlined Ballerina, the John Wick spin-off. She’s also attached to Deeper, a long-gestating thriller with Tom Cruise as a disgraced astronaut sent on a deep-sea mission to a newly discovered trench. The duo reportedly went through extensive dive training ahead of a planned start last summer, but the movie hit pause when the budget swelled. It’s currently on hold while the numbers get sorted or the project finds a new home.
Connelly, meanwhile, is back for Dark Matter season 2 on Apple TV+, continuing opposite Joel Edgerton in the sci-fi series.
Bottom line: Safe Houses has the right ingredients — prestige pedigree behind the camera, two A-list leads, and a premise built for slow-burn reversals. If the deals close, this one jumps near the top of Apple’s must-watch list.