Today, it's been announced that Netflix has tapped Carla Gugino to star as one of the leads in the 10-episode straight-to-series modern re-imagining of the Shirley Jackson classic 1959 novel, THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE.
Gugino is the newest star to board the project, after Michel Huisman signed on to the project for genre filmmaker Mike Flanagan (OUIJA: ORIGIN OF EVIL, OCULUS, HUSH) of Steven Spielberg's Amblin TV and Paramount TV. While the Netflix series presentation is poised to use Jackson's bone-chilling ghost story as its source of inspiration, Flanagan will also expand on the family history and lore of the Crane family. So far, no details as to who Gugino or Huisman will portray has been revealed. For the moment, we know that Flanagan will write the series as well as direct, with the filmmaker also executively producing the project by way of his producing partner, Trevor Macy, and Amblin TV’s Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey.
This will mark yet another occassion wherein Gugino and Flanagan will work together, after the actress had starred in GERALD'S GAME, the feature adaptation of horror master Stephen King's novel for Netflix.
Welly welly well, this has the potential to be pretty cool – if only to witness the ways in which the set design team updates the spooky manor for the series. While I admit to not having seen any of Flanagan's horror films of the past few years, here's hoping that he takes full advantage of the long-game that is episodic television, and creates some truly frightening moments for this classic property.
Will you be watching THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE? Let us know in the comments section below!