We Speak Actors
Sam Heughan to Star Opposite Viola Davis in Paramount+ Thriller ‘Ascent’
Sam Heughan has lined up his next leading role — and he’ll share the screen with one of the most decorated performers in the business. The Outlander star will headline Ascent, a new corporate-crisis thriller for Paramount+, alongside EGOT winner Viola Davis, it was announced Thursday (October 22).
The character-driven series is set in the high-stakes world of global crisis management and damage control. Heughan plays Conal, one of Ascent Ventures’ top agents — described as lethally charming, a natural chameleon who uses social cunning and ruthlessness to complete every mission. Davis plays Catriona, an elite corporate fixer whose skills have made her indispensable to billion-dollar clients — and who must turn those same skills to protecting her estranged daughter when danger closes in.
Ascent marks a contemporary turn for Heughan following the end of Outlander, the STARZ hit that earned him BAFTA Scotland and Critics’ Choice Award nominations. He next appears in the political thriller Embassy with J.K. Simmons and Anna Kendrick. Away from the screen, he is a three-time New York Times bestselling author, founder of the award-winning Sassenach spirits brand, and creator of My Peak Challenge, the wellness community that raises money for charity.
Production on Ascent is slated to begin in Los Angeles in 2027, with the series set to premiere globally and exclusively on Paramount+.
Tom Cruise is set to receive American cinema’s most prestigious career honor. The American Film Institute has named Cruise the 52nd recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award, recognising a career that has defined the modern blockbuster for more than four decades.
Few actors have shaped the theatrical era the way Cruise has. From his breakout in Risky Business and the phenomenon of Top Gun, through dramatic heavyweight turns in Rain Man, Born on the Fourth of July, A Few Good Men and Jerry Maguire, to the Mission: Impossible franchise — where his commitment to practical stunt work became the industry standard — Cruise has remained the defining movie star of his generation.
The AFI Life Achievement Award, established in 1973, is presented to a single honoree whose body of work has made a lasting contribution to American culture. For Cruise, the tribute caps a run that has consistently championed the big-screen experience, drawing global audiences back into cinemas and setting box-office benchmarks that few performers in history can match.
He joins one of the most exclusive honor rolls in film — a recognition, four decades in, that the mission is far from over.
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