Australian actor Remy Hii may not yet be a household name in his native land, but 26-year-old former Neighbours and Better Man star is about to land on Hollywood's biggest platform, the online TV giant Netflix.
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Hii, who played convicted drug trafficker Van Tuong Nguyen in the critically acclaimed SBS miniseries Better Man, is setting off on a journey of discovery.
He will star in a new television adaptation of the story of famed explorer Marco Polo, described already by US media as one of the most expensive television dramas ever produced.
Italian actor Lorenzo Richelmy, 23, has been named as the show's lead, playing Marco Polo.
Hii's role has not been revealed, but he joins Benedict Wong (Prometheus), Zhu Zhu (Cloud Atlas), Tom Wu (Skyfall) and Rick Yune (Olympus Has Fallen) in the cast.
Netflix has commissioned a 10-part drama, described as a journey which takes Marco Polo "to the centre of a brutal war in 13th century China, a world replete with astonishing martial arts, sexual intrigue, political skulduggery and spectacular battles".
The project will be filmed in Italy, Kazakhstan and Malaysia. It will launch in the US in 2014.
It is the same project that another US cable channel, Starz, was attempting to mount several years ago, but Starz abandoned the project after several attempts to film the series on location in China came to nothing.
Hii has also been nominated for the Graham Kennedy Award for most outstanding newcomer at this year's TV Week Logie Awards.
He is up against Anna Bamford (Ten's Wonderland), Shareena Clanton (Foxtel's Wentworth) Caren Pistorius (ABC's Paper Giants: Magazine Wars) and Meyne Wyatt (ABC's Redfern Now).
The winner will be announced at the 56th Annual TV Week Logie Awards, which will be held on April 27.
