With all the excitement over It, The Dark Tower and Castle Rock, we’d nearly forgotten about the upcoming TV series based on Stephen King’s novella The Mist, but there’s a trailer here that shows that we’ll be going outside the supermarket…
It’s interesting to see how the world will expand, adding more characters and locations beyond the aisles of claustrophobia in King’s novella and Frank Darabont’s excellent 2007 film.
Speaking to EW, creator Christian Torpe (Rita) explained that he wanted to open the story up a little while remaining faithful to the story. “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,” he explained. “But we are not just in the mall. 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.”
It also focuses on new characters, as opposed to following the story of David Drayton and the various townsfolk he encounters. Here, we have Alyssa Sutherland (Vikings) as Eve, a teacher who’s the subject of some sordid gossip and misogyny, Kevin Spector (Person Of Interest) as Kevin, Eve’s ex and a good-natured liberal who’ll find his ideals put to the test, and the great Frances Conroy as Nathalie Raven, who is described as “part prophet, part wannabe martyr.” We can’t wait to see her play that.
Other characters include Eve and Kevin’s rebelling daughter Alex (Gus Birney), the town Sheriff (Darren Pettie) with a complicated relationship with Nathalie, the Sheriff’s troubled son Jay (Luke Cosgrove), amnesiac soldier Bryan (Okezie Morro), “modern-minded priest” Alex (Dan Butler, Frasier), insecure teen Adrian (Russell Posner), drug addict on the run Mia (Danica Curcic), and authority craving mall manager Gus Redman, played by The Wire‘s magnificent Isiah Whitlock Jr.
Torpe also told EW that he feels the story is very much relevant for our times. “Unfortunately, I thought it was incredibly timely to do a show about what people do when they are blinded by fear,” he said. “We look around at what’s going on in the world, and everyone is constantly looking for someone to blame, or someone to lead them to the promised land. They find people to hate, either because of their gender or race or faith. Those are elements we tap into — how fear drives things like misogyny and homophobia.”
The Mist begins on Spike on 22 June. No UK broadcaster or air date has been announced.
