Super 8 star Joel Courtney & Carl from The Walking Dead join Stephen Kings Mercy

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Universal’s adaptation of Stephen King’s MERCY just wrangled two solid young actors; SUPER 8‘s Joel Courtney and “The Walking Dead’s” Chandler Riggs (both seen to the right). Peter Cornwell (THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT) will direct the flick for Blumhouse and Wonderland Sound and Vision.

Based on King’s short “Gramma,” MERCY:

Follows two young boys who go with their single mother (Frances O’Connor) to take care of their elderly, senile grandmother named Mercy, only to discover that she’s a witch who made a pact with a dark force many years before.

Sounds fantastic on the page, but as usual, King adaptations are a dicey proposition. With the youngens cast, my guess is the flick, like Cornwell’s HAUNTING, will be PG-13. That said, the two actors they found are pretty promising. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t much care for Carl on “TWD”, but he’s been picking his weight up lately. And Courtney, along with Elle Fanning, showed great range as child actors in SUPER 8. Quite impressive.

What says you? You diggin’ the two leads? Would you rather have seen someone else cast?