After receiving two cinematic adaptations that used the title Village of the Damned (you can watch the 1960 version HERE and the 1995 version HERE), author John Wyndham's 1957 novel The Midwich Cuckoos (pick up a copy at THIS LINK) is now set to receive a television mini-series adaptation that will actually keep the original title.
The eight-part Sky Original mini-series is said to be a "dark, disturbing modern day reimagining" of the story about
an English town where women become inexplicably pregnant with alien children.
Here's some more information on the story:
In the sleepy English village of Midwich, a mysterious silver object appears and all the inhabitants fall unconscious. A day later the object is gone and everyone awakens unharmed – except that all the women in the village are discovered to be pregnant. The resultant children of Midwich do not belong to their parents: all are blonde, all are golden eyed. They grow up too fast and their minds exhibit frightening abilities that give them control over others and brings them into conflict with the villagers just as a chilling realisation dawns on the world outside… The Midwich Cuckoos is the classic tale of aliens in our midst, exploring how we respond when confronted by those who are innately superior to us in every conceivable way.
Produced by Route 24 and Snowed-In Productions, in association with Sky Studios, The Midwich Cuckoos is currently filming and stars Keeley Hawes, Max Beesley, and Cherrelle Skeete.
Scripts for the mini-series have been written by David Farr, Sasha Hails, Namsi Khan, and Laura Lomas. The show is being directed by Alice Troughton and Jennifer Perrott. Marc Samuelson and Robert Cheek are executive producing for Route 24, while Ruth Kenley-Letts and Neil Blair do the same for Snowed-In Productions. The series producer is Eliza Mellor.
The 1960 Village of the Damned was directed by Wolf Rilla and scripted by Rilla, Stirling Silliphant, and Ronald Kinnoch. George Sanders, Barbara Shelley, and Michael Gwynn starred. That film is considered a sci-fi horror classic, and was followed by a 1964 sequel called Children of the Damned (you can watch that HERE).
John Carpenter directed the 1995 Village of the Damned, working from a screenplay by David Himmelstein. That one starred Christopher Reeve, Kirstie Alley, Linda Kozlowski, Michael Paré, and Mark Hamill… and despite the cast, turned out to be one of the least popular films of Carpenter's career.
Here's hoping that the TV version of The Midwich Cuckoos will turn out well.
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