Eddie Redmayne isn’t the first actor that comes to mind when one says “deadly assassin”, writes streaming columnist NICK OVERALL.

Eddie Redmayne’s resume includes his Oscar-winning performance of genius astrophysicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, his popular portrayal of diffident wizard Newt Scamander in the Harry Potter spin-offs and his starring role acclaimed biopic The Danish Girl, where he played one of the first people to ever receive gender reassignment surgery.

But audiences haven’t seen the 42-year-old British actor take on a triple-A action role. That is, until now.

In Binge’s newest thriller series The Day of The Jackal, Redmayne has had a change of pace indeed.

In this 10-episode series he stars as “the jackal”, a ruthless assassin hired to take out high-profile targets around the world.

It’s based on a 1971 novel and 1973 film of the same name, but this new take firmly transports things to the modern day, ensconcing this assassin in an age of high-tech espionage and global political tension.

The jackal is the ultimate killing machine, able to nail a target with a sniper rifle from so far away that even the most elite British intelligence officers doubt it’s possible.

He hides his deadly dealings from his wife and son, but things begin to unravel when another master assassin starts hunting him down, setting the stage for a game of cat and mouse with more than a few funs thrown in.

It’s a little slow off the mark, but The Day of The Jackal proves itself a heart-pounding experience with more smarts than your run-of-the-mill thriller. Those who have missed the edge of their seat recently can find it again here.

WATCHING Dune Part Two earlier this year was one of the best experiences at the movies in years. I don’t know whether my seat or my eardrums were vibrating more.

The gargantuan, sci-fi blockbuster based on Frank Herbert’s classic 1965 novel boasted a cinematic spectacle that rivalled even Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy in scale and ambition.

It also proved a box office hit and the expansive lore of this sprawling saga about an interplanetary battle for control of the galaxy made it ripe for a prequel series.

Enter Dune: Prophecy, which has just started streaming on Binge.

It winds back the clock 10,000 years before the events of the Dune films.

It follows the machinations of the Bene Gesserit, a secret order of women who seek to discover a powerful messiah prophesied to lead the galaxy into a new era. 

That messiah, no spoilers, is the same one who appears in the two recent films: Paul Atreiedes as played by Timothee Chalamet.

The films relied heavily on the big screen to instill awe from the sheer size of their monolithic CGI spaceships and huge fight sequences.

It will be interesting to see how things go when scaled down to the small screen.

The story of Dune Prophecy is going to have to be very strong to carry this series through and being set a whopping 10,000 years before the events of the two films, one has to wonder, is that just a little too far back to still generate interest?

Ten thousand years of spin-off content. The executive’s mouths must be watering.

SEASON one of Apple TV Plus’ sci-fi dystopia series Silo proved itself to be one of the most intriguing new shows of last year.

Starring Rebecca Ferguson (who coincidentally also stars in the Dune films) this series tells the tale of an apocalyptic future where humans have had to retreat underground to save themselves from the toxic surface above.

They’ve carved out some kind of existence in a cylindrical society stretching kilometres into the earth.

But what are they really being kept inside for and what’s really out on the surface?

These questions have kept viewers coming back to know more.

With season two Silo has work to do to expand its world building, but it holds promise to cement itself as a real cerebral sci-fi hit for our age if it can pull it off.