Rashida Jones Teams Up with a Robot to Solve Mystery

Rashida Jones is taking on sentient robots. At least this one is helpful in finding her family…

Jones stars in and executive produces Apple TV+ series “Sunny,” which follows Suzie (Jones), an American woman living in Kyoto, Japan, whose life is upended when her husband and son disappear in a mysterious plane crash.

Per the official synopsis, as a ‘consolation,’ Suzie is given domestic robot Sunny, who was made by her husband’s electronics company. Though at first, Suzie resents Sunny’s attempts to fill the void in her life, gradually they develop an unexpected friendship. Together they uncover the dark truth of what really happened to Suzie’s family and become dangerously enmeshed in a world Suzie never knew existed.

Hidetoshi Nishijima, Joanna Sotomura, Judy Ongg, YOU, annie the clumsy, and Jun Kunimura also star in the series based on the book “Dark Manual” by Japan-based award-winning Irish writer Colin O’Sullivan.

The ten-episode darkly comedic mystery series was created by showrunner, executive producer, and screenwriter Katie Robbins. Lucy Tcherniak executive produces and directs. The series hails from A24.

Robbins executive produces through her shingle Babka Pictures, with Tcherniak executive producing for Poppycock Pictures. A24 and Jones also serve as executive producers.

“Sunny” marks the second collaboration for Apple, A24, and Jones following the global premiere of Sofia Coppola’s acclaimed film “On the Rocks.” Jones also recently starred in Apple’s series “Silo,” based on Hugh Howey’s New York Times best-selling trilogy of dystopian novels.

Other buzzy Apple TV+ titles include the newly released “Presumed Innocent,” which stars Jake Gyllenhaal and is adapted from the same book as Alan J. Pakula’s Harrison Ford film. “Palm Royale,” a series recently celebrated at IndieWire Honors, had an A-list ensemble cast including executive producer Laura Dern, Carol Burnett, Kristen Wiig, Josh Lucas, and more.

Dern told IndieWire that assembling the “Palm Royale” stars was a “dream come true.”

“When I had made the same casting call to Kristen Wiig about the show knowing what Carol [Burnett] means to all of us — and knowing specifically what she means to women actors, women who’ve gone into comedy, women who have been heroes in sketch comedy like Kristen, women who pursue or even consider the idea of being producers — she was and is the hero in all those areas,” Dern said. “I’ll never forget at the first read through Kristen was in tears. It was really beautiful to palpably see what Carol meant to all of us and to see specifically what she meant to Kristen. To know they were going to have so much fun together, it was the greatest time in the world. It was unheard of.”

“Sunny” premieres July 10 with the first two episodes, followed by one new episode every Wednesday through September 4. Check out the trailer below.