It has been almost a year since the announcement that Jordan Peele would be teaming up with JJ Abrams to executive produce, through their respective companies Monkeypaw and Bad Robot, a series adaptation of the 2016 Matt Ruff novel Lovecraft Country for HBO. Now we have a promising update on the show, as they have found the director who will take the helm of the first episode.
That director is British filmmaker Yann Demange, who will be making his U.S. TV debut with this project. Demange's previous credits include the British mini-series Dead Set (pictured), which was about a Big Brother cast dealing with a zombie outbreak, and the action thriller '71. His work on '71, his feature debut, landed him on the shortlist to direct the next James Bond movie.
Lovecraft Country centers on
25-year-old Atticus Black. After his father goes missing, Black joins up with his friend Letitia and his Uncle George to embark on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America to find him. This begins a struggle to survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and the malevolent spirits that could be ripped from a Lovecraft paperback.
The first episode of the series has been written by Underground co-creator Misha Green, who is also executive producing the show with Peele, Abrams, and Bad Robot's Ben Stephenson. Demange joins them as an executive producer.
Demange is currently working on his second feature, WHITE BOY RICK, a crime drama starring Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Bel Powley, Bruce Dern, YG, and Brian Tyree Henry.
I haven't read the book, but the talent involved has me convinced that I'll need to check out the TV adaptation of Lovecraft Country. If you would like to pick up a copy of the book, you can do so on Amazon.
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