By: Jaclyn Cascio (@jaclynator)
In 2007, we saw Stephen King’s novella “The Mist” come to life in a film written and directed by Frank Darabont. Ten years later, Spike TV will be putting The Mist back on our screens, this time in a television series. To find out everything we know so far about the project, kick back, relax, and read on!
Produced for Spike TV by TWC-Dimension Television, development for The Mist began in 2015 with Stephen King’s approval and a script by Christian Torpe. Following initial approval of a pilot in February 2016 for the show, The Mist was green lit in April 2016 after hearing the pitch for the full series. The show has been developed to be an ongoing series, not just a single season mini-series. (Basically, if you like it, you’ll hopefully get more!) With executive producers Torpe and Amanda Segel, the show began filming in Nova Scotia in July 2016 with Adam Bernstein directing the premiere episode.
While the new television series may be based on King’s novella, Torpe has clarified that it’s not a remake of the book or the movie. “Let’s call it a re-imagination…It’s like a weird, twisted cousin to the original source material,” he said. Think of Noah Hawley’s Fargo on FX, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what Torpe wants to accomplish. Torpe has also reported, “It’s not the same story as in the book and the movie, nor is it the same characters – but fans of the story will still see clear parallels.”
So if it’s not the same story or the same people, but it uses King’s novella as source material, what should we be expecting in the ten hour-long episodes of the first season? Torpe made a point to explain why changes were necessary for The Mist. “The novella is 200 pages and one location, and we needed to change that to make an ongoing series. But we wanted to remain faithful to the heart of the story.” This means that the show won’t be spending the whole season in a grocery store. Characters will be isolated in various locations within Bridgeville, Maine, by the mist, such as a church or a mall. Torpe told EW, “We establish different little pressure cookers under the influence of whoever the leader would be in those locations. Each of them come up with different theories or beliefs about what’s going on. Eventually, the story lines will dovetail and turn into conflicts.”
If it sounds like the horror drama will have more focus on characters than previous iterations, you might be right. Before the mysterious mist even rolls into town, the community is falling apart after a brutal crime. The real question is: What will people do to survive when driven by fear? While everyone fights to keep their sanity and their morality, don’t think that the mist is just a psychologically challenging thing testing their humanity. When talking about CGI and the mist, Torpe reported an insane amount of visual effects within the mist, also saying, “As for what is in the mist and how much we see – you’ll have to wait and see!” That sounds like there might be some monsters in the mist to mess with the community, too. (Here’s hoping!)
Check out the trailer for yourself right here!
Since the characters are all new for the television series, let’s take a quick look at what to expect!
The Copeland family will feature, with Morgan Spector as Kevin Copeland, a father, husband, and all-around good guy. He has been a straight-shooter all his life, but he’s never faced testing like what the mist brings. And when the mist comes, he finds himself separated from his family. His wife, Eve (played by Alyssa Sutherland) is a school teacher who has some controversy surrounding her as she instructs a sexual education class. The mist will leave her stranded at the mall with her daughter Alex (played by Gus Birney), who is a good teen who gets a rebellious streak at exactly the wrong time.
Meanwhile, Russell Posner will play Adrian Garff, a teenager who defends his friend, Alex, after a brutal crime. Adrian and Alex aren’t the only ones involved with the controversy surrounding the crime we know nothing about just yet. Luke Cosgrove plays Jay Heisel, the local high school football star who is accused of the crime that threatens to tear the community apart. His father is Connor Heiser (played by Darren Pettie), the town’s sheriff.
Other fun characters include Jonah Dixon (Okezie Morro), a military member with amnesia. Unable to remember who he is, secrets will reportedly be revealed as he uncovers the truth of his identity. In an unlikely pairing, the show will find him with Mia Lambert (played by Danica Curcic), a drug-addict on the run and looking for a mysterious stash of cash. Frances Conroy is set to play a character named Nathalie Raven, an “ecological martyr” who is a bit of a prophet with some knowledge and a lot of faith. Dan Butler plays priest Father Romanov, who has no personal faith but clings to the rituals of religion. Isiah Whitlock Jr. is Gus Redman, a mall manager who failed to gain ground as a politician, but with the mist trapping people in his mall, he might just find himself leading a mini-society in the crisis.
See? No grocery stores! Now, if you’ve read the novella and seen the movie, you know that The Mist had very different endings in each. (Those endings have divided fans for years!) If you’re wondering which way Spike’s television series might lean when it eventually ends, Torpe said, “I think we came up with our own spin on a very original and surprising ending.” So at least fans of The Mist don’t have to worry about spoilers!
To find out for yourself what happens in The Mist, tune in to Spike TV for the premiere on June 22, 2017 at 10pm ET/PT!
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via The Nerd Machine
http://www.nerdhq.com/what-we-know-spike-tvs-the-mist/
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