First look – See Adam Scott, Robert De Niro in Netflix's 'Whisper Man'

Adam Scott has been looking for a way to work with Robert De Niro since he was 11 years old. And now they’re playing father and son in a Netflix thriller.

“I think the word ‘dream’ is overused and you can apply whatever you want to it, but I never thought it was something that would actually happen,” the “Severance” Emmy nominee says of costarring alongside De Niro in “The Whisper Man.” USA TODAY has the exclusive first photos from the adaptation of Alex North’s novel streaming Aug. 28.

In the film directed by James Ashcroft (“Coming Home in the Dark”), widowed crime writer Tom Kennedy (played by Scott) seeks a fresh start with 8-year-old son Jake (Acston Luca Porto) after the death of his wife. When Jake is abducted, Tom turns to his estranged dad, retired detective Peter Willis (De Niro), and discovers a connection to a convicted serial killer known as “The Whisper Man.” Also on the case is Amanda Beck (Michelle Monaghan), the lead detective investigating Jake’s disappearance.

“I don't think you have to have children to connect to the total emotional and physical nightmare of your child being abducted and not knowing where your kid is and whether or not your kid is safe,” says Scott, a father of two. “There's this complete powerlessness when everything is up in the air and everything connected to your child is a total mystery.”

“The Whisper Man” is a movie “that reveals itself in layers of escalating tension and dread but it was important to ground that atmosphere in the familiar, the ordinary, the domestic,” Ashcroft says. “There is nothing more unsettling for me than a growing anxiety about the world you thought you knew as it begins to take on more sinister tones.”

It’s a story “about fathers and sons” but also about “acceptance that everything we experience becomes a part of who we are,” the filmmaker adds. Ashcroft wanted to mine similar territory as “The Silence of the Lambs,” “Prisoners” and “Zodiac,” movies that “made such indelible impressions on audiences because of their focus on character, complexity of relationships and the incredible performances of the actors.”

When it came to working alongside De Niro, “I don't think it's outrageous to say I never got used to it. He is the guy,” Scott says. He confesses to having pictures of De Niro up on his wall growing up and shots of him and Martin Scorsese taped to his locker at school.

“Halfway through filming, I was talking to my wife and I was like, ‘I have this question about ‘The Irishman’ and I think tomorrow I might ask Bob but I haven't found the right time,’” Scott recalls. “And she's like, ‘Adam, you're not a background actor, you don't have like two lines. You guys are starring in a movie together.’

“Every day, I couldn't believe it. It was an emotionally taxing movie for everybody and I couldn't feel more lucky that I was able to go through that and do that right alongside him.”