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The event will debut a first look at footage from Hulu’s highly-anticipated upcoming psychological horror series set in the Stephen King universe and include a panel discussion with series creators and showrunners Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason.
The ATX Television Festival will take place June 7-10 in Austin, Texas.
The voiceover (unmistakably delivered by Lost alum Terry O’Quinn, who plays Dale Lacy, though he’s never seen speaking on screen) sums it up best: “There’s blood in every backyard, inside every house. People say it wasn’t me; it was this place. And the thing is, they’re right.”
The series, created by Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason (Manhattan), is executive produced by the pair along with J.J. Abrams, Ben Stephenson, Liz Glotzer, and King himself. Along with Holland, Glenn, Spacek, Skarsgård, and O’Quinn, the 10-episode drama stars Melanie Lynskey and Jane Levy.
Castle Rock debuts July 25 on Hulu.
There’s a small town nestled in the heart of Massachusetts, an hour and a half west of Boston, called Orange — that for now, doesn’t look like Orange at all.
For four months, it’s been posing as Castle Rock, home of the Hulu anthology series based on the works of Stephen King. Locals aided with Orange’s temporary transformation into the unluckiest fictional town in America: Business owners placed Castle Rock signs in their windows, shops sell show-branded souvenirs — one even stocks “Castle Rock” coffee — and residents regularly gather to observe production.
But today the streets are quiet — a mid-December snowstorm will do that — and inside a building on Main Street posing as the Castle Rock police station, actor André Holland (Moonlight) has grown restless. He’s about to film a scene from the season finale in which his character, lawyer Henry Deaver, dashes into the precinct to … well, the reason’s a spoiler. Point is, it’s an intense sequence, and Holland’s preparing by doing push-ups. And jumping jacks. And running in place. And more push-ups. Until finally he bursts into frame, out of breath, over and over again, take after take.
The physical demands of playing Castle Rock’s protagonist, though, are nothing compared to the character’s emotional turmoil. This — his hometown, the police department, all of it — is the last place Henry wants to be. “It’s definitely taken a toll on him,” Holland says. “He wanted to get as far away from this town as he could. He has a complicated history with it.”
“Complicated” is putting it simply. As a child, Henry was involved in an accident that left his father dead and him the sole suspect, but he has no memory of it and eventually fled when townspeople turned against him. Now a death-row attorney with few connections — his clients, see, usually die — Henry only returned home because a mysterious inmate at Shawshank State Penitentiary (Bill Skarsgård, below), who was discovered in a cage deep beneath the facility, asked for him. Only him. Yet, Henry has never heard of the inmate — and the inmate, nicknamed “The Kid,” has been in solitary confinement so long that he may be insane.
“He’s a very traumatized creature,” Skarsgård says of his character. “He’s very feral. He’s not normal. Everything is off and wounded in some way.” But why? “A lot of what he’s been through has shaped who he is, and …” Skarsgård chuckles. “I can’t say who he is without revealing what he’s been through.”
He’s not really spoiling anything; this is just how Castle Rock begins, and it’s all J.J. Abrams needed to hear to sign on as an executive producer. Co-creators Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason’s (Manhattan) plans for the pilot alone got the Lost co-creator so excited he broke out laughing: “I was like, ‘This is going to be so much fun,’ ” recalls Abrams. “There were things they were pitching that were truly terrifying and truly creepy.”
And truly ambitious. Shaw and Thomason — both, as Shaw puts it, “unreformed total Stephen King heads” — want to take the author’s (arguably) most terrorized Maine locale and, um, terrorize it further. Their vision is a Fargo-like series in which each season not only matches King’s tone and aesthetic, but also plucks characters and settings directly from his work.
To avoid being overwhelmed by the author’s extensive oeuvre (56 novels and counting, not to mention more than 200 short stories), they focused on finding a type of King tale that would resonate today. “When we returned to his library, a lot of his stories about prison and justice were really compelling to us,” Shaw says. “They’re the closest things to true-life monster stories that we tell ourselves as a culture. How do we assign blame? How do we reckon with the idea of evil and whether we believe in it?”
“Our intention was always to tell an original story in the tune of Stephen King,” Thomason adds, pointing out that the town of Castle Rock offered the most opportunity for invention. “The germ of the idea was to think about the kinds of people who have the grit to stick it out in a place that’s been terrorized over and over again. Who stays in a place like that?”
For starters, the introverted Molly Strand (Melanie Lynskey), whose real-estate business seems like a cruel joke she’s playing on herself. (“It’s just the strangest choice,” Lynskey says, laughing. “Why would you have that job in a town where no one wants to buy real estate?”) There’s also world-weary Alan Pangborn (Scott Glenn, above), the iconic hero of the novels Needful Things and The Dark Half. He’s no longer Castle Rock’s sheriff, but a lion in winter living with, as Glenn calls it, “a bitterness, day by day.”
That bitterness has to do with another permanent resident: Ruth Deaver (Sissy Spacek), Henry’s adoptive mother, who suffers from dementia and struggles to remember where — and when — she is. The role’s complexity drew Spacek back into the King universe 41 years after starring in Carrie, the first screen adaptation of one of his novels. “The Stephen King world is a good place to be. This story, really, is an homage to him,” she says. “I hope we were able to do him proud.”
She needn’t worry. The author approved the project and signed on as an EP. After watching the pilot, he even emailed Abrams a positive review, which Abrams promptly sent to Shaw and Thomason. “It was a very, very cool moment, when J.J. forwarded us the email,” Shaw says with a laugh. “You want to be sure that when Stephen King watches your Stephen King show, he’s happy.” And maybe just a little scared.
“Stephen was sort of, for us, Charlie in ‘Charlie’s Angels.’ He was sort of the crucial figure who loomed from afar,” Sam Shaw said. “Castle Rock is an important town in the Stephen King library, so it was crucial — we needed and wanted to have his blessing.”
A decade ago Shaw and Dustin Thomason kicked around the idea of a show set in a “kind of generic, off-brand Castle Rock,” Shaw continued. Both men are “reformed fiction writers and were fans of Stephen King and fans of the geography in Stephen King’s” universe. They wanted to explore the kinds of people who would stay in a town after experiencing demonic dogs and serial murderers, but they never thought they’d get the rights to his works.
About a year and a half ago, though, Shaw said, they sat down with Bad Robot which changed everything.
“It was our understanding that we were not the first people to knock on his door and ask for a cup of sugar and to set a show in the town of Castle Rock,” Shaw said. But having Bad Robot’s J.J. Abrams and Warner Bros. proper behind them made it a go.
“He was flexible and gave us great license,” Shaw said of King.
What then became important was focusing on the story itself.
“There was a really interesting way to approach the material, which is to say, ‘What is a town like Castle Rock now?’ Thomason said. Noting that returning to the place that haunted their childhood dreams, the producers wanted to touch on what it looked like in a modern era.
Shaw added that having to “zipper together” King’s mode of storytelling, which often lays out exactly where a story is going with the “mystery box” and plot twist style Abrams for which Abrams is famous.
The first season has one story that will “run its course throughout the episodes” in the “seasonal anthology” style, Shaw pointed out. The idea is that he town is kind of an “advent calendar” and the show can “honor the diversity of the kinds of stories Stephen King tells.” Therefore, both producers like the idea of being able to jump around in time and bringing in different characters that “intersect in different ways.”
The first season, though, will focus on the town as a place that has been “visited and revisited,” featuring some characters are from the Stephen King universe, and some that just share DNA-style traits with previous Stephen King characters.
“Part of what’s great about Stephen King can get lost when you’re trying to ruthlessly cut it down,” Thomason said. Having 10 episodes to explore the story will allow them to dive as deep into character development as King does in his 1000-page novels. And it all starts with with Henry Deaver, played by Andre Holland, who Thomason called “our way into the story.”
Henry is a man who is called to the town and uncovers a mystery there.
“On a genre show, you end up with some characters that end up they’re in a genre story. What we wanted to do…was find actors who really brought you into a world and made it feel totally true and human and natural, even a strange occurrences began to happen around them,” Thomason said, noting that it starts with Holland.
Other key casting included Sissy Spacek, who Thomason called “sort of the original Stephen King star,” as Henry’s adoptive mother; Bill Skarsgard, who he called “the most recent star” and is a man at the center of the mystery Holland finds; Scott Glenn, who plays Spacek’s character’s boyfriend and is kind of a “lion in winter” to the show; Melanie Lynskey and Allison Tolman, who play sisters (the latter of whom was cast after she Tweeted at Lynskey to congratulate her on booking the show and pointed out they should play sisters, the producers announced); and Terry O’Quinn who plays a man who grew up in Castle Rock and saw many tragedies pass through the town.
And then, of course, there is the town itself.
“Casting the town of Castle Rock was almost the most crucial casting in a way,” Shaw said. “A huge amount of work was location work.”
Ultimately, they settled on Orange, Mass. as their shooting location. It was a town the producers saw in the winter and with its barren trees and gray landscape felt haunted and perfect for the tone. The challenge came because a long-term film crew hadn’t come to the area in decades but also because they were effectively asking to borrow a town and “have it stand in for the worst place on Earth,” Shaw noted.
“Castle Rock” will launch with three episodes available at once July 25, with the following episodes unrolling one at a time, not dissimilar to the spring launch plan for “The Handmaid’s Tale.” While Shaw said this was a decision that was made “above his pay grade,” he feels it is the right way to launch the show because he likes the “IV drip” of television rolling out slowly, especially when it’s darker material.
“There are…horror movies and stories that are uncomfortable because you don’t know what to expect from them,” Shaw said. “There’s something queasy-making and unsettling about entering into scenes and stories and not [being] exactly sure what to be afraid of or what you don’t need to be afraid of. And that’s what Stephen King does.”
Canadian broadcast group Bell Media has picked up a forthcoming psychological horror series produced by JJ Abrams and set in a fictional town created by author Stephen King.
Castle Rock (10×60’) was originally commissioned by US streamer Hulu and will now air on Bell’s Space channel as well as its premium Canadian SVoD service CraveTV.
The show adopts characters and themes from some of King’s most iconic novels and is set in the town of Castle Rock in the US state of Maine.
The place has also featured in King’s novels Cujo, The Dark Half, IT and Needful Things. The new TV series stars Andre Holland (Moonlight), Melanie Lynskey (Togetherness) and Bill Skarsgård (IT).
Castle Rock is distributed by Warner Bros and launches on July 25 with a three-episode premiere event starting at 21.00 ET on Space and CraveTV.
From creators Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason, the anthology drama is set in Castle Rock — the ill-fated fictional Maine town featured in such King works as “The Dead Zone” and “Cujo” — and weaves together characters and themes from King’s book catalog to present an original story.
The 10-episode first season revolved around Henry Deaver (André Holland of “Moonlight”), a death-row attorney who returns to his hometown after a mysterious young man (Bill Skarsgard) is found in a cage inside a hidden area of Shawshank State Penitentiary.
The series also stars Sissy Spacek, a veteran of the King world after making her breakthrough in 1976 as the title character in the big-screen adaptation of “Carrie.”
Although Hulu does not release ratings data, the nebulous details it did share about the show’s performance included:
As of now, the details and scope of his role are undisclosed, but simply knowing they’ve secured his services for Season 2 of Castle Rock should be enough to make fans of Castle Rock, of Shawshank Redemption, and of Stephen King quite happy.
Set in the titular (but fictional) town where King has based many of his published works, Castle Rock weaves together different locations and characters from the author’s greatest hits. Per the official Season 2 logline, “A feud between warring clans comes to a boil when Annie Wilkes, King’s nurse from hell, gets waylaid in Castle Rock.”
It goes without saying that Caplan has big shoes to fill. The character of Annie — featured in King’s 1987 novel of the same name — gained icon status when Kathy Bates portrayed her in the 1990 film adaptation. The portrayal netted her an Oscar. For Fisher, the role of Annie’s home-schooled daughter arrives in the wake of her breakout success in Eighth Grade.
Meanwhile, Robbins — arguably best known for his starring role in 1994’s Shawshank Redemption, which was based on King’s 1982 novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption — will inhabit another notable King subject: Reginald “Pop” Merrill (from King’s 1990 novella The Sun Dog). The Patriarch of the Merrill crime family, Pop is dying of cancer and at a reckoning with his family. Hedlund co-stars as Pop’s nephew John “Ace” Merrill, who is taking over his uncle’s businesses and threatening a fragile peace with nearby Jerusalem’s Lot.
Castle Rock‘s Season 2 ensemble also includes Yusra Warsama (NBC’s Dracula), Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips) and Matthew Alan (13 Reasons Why).
King serves as an EP on Castle Rock alongside JJ Abrams, Ben Stephenson, Dustin Thomason, Vince Calandra, Sam Shaw and Liz Glotzer.
Caplan’s Annie Wilkes is a nurse and superfan battling to overcome mental health issues.
Robbins is Reginald “Pop” Merrill. The Patriarch of Stephen King’s iconic crime family, Pop is dying of cancer and at a reckoning with his family.
Hedlund plays John “Ace” Merril. Castle Rock’s legendary bully, Ace is taking over his uncle Pop’s businesses and threatening a fragile peace with nearby Jerusalem’s Lot.
Fisher is Joy. Annie’s home-schooled teenage daughter, Joy is starting to have questions about her mother’s sanity.
Warsam is Dr. Nadia Omar. The Harvard-trained Somali medical director of a rural hospital in Jerusalem’s Lot, Dr. Omar’s rational and scientific mind will be put to the test.
Abdi will portray Abdi Omar. The tough, older brother of Nadia, Abdi leads the charge to build a Somali community center that will deepen the roots of his people in Maine.
Alan plays Chris Merrill. Pop’s nephew and Ace’s brother, Chris struggles to keep peace between the Merrills and the Somali community.
Sam Shaw & Dustin Thomason developed the project for television and serve as executive producers along with J.J. Abrams, Ben Stephenson, Dustin Thomason, Vince Calandra, Sam Shaw, Stephen King and Liz Glotzer. Castle Rock hails from Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television.
Caplan starred as human sexuality research pioneer Virginia Johnson in Masters Of Sex, which ran on Showtime for four seasons. The role earned her an Emmy nomination. She’ll soon be seen opposite Octavia Spencer in Apple’s upcoming drama series Are You Sleeping? She is repped by WME, Rise Management and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.
Robbins is coming off a starring role in HBO’s Alan Ball series Here and Now. He’s next set to star on the big screen alongside Anne Hathaway and Mark Ruffalo in Todd Haynes’ untitled drama about the DuPont pollution scandal.
Alan is best known for his recurring role on Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why. He can next be seen on HBO’s upcoming Lovecraft Country and recurring on Season 3 of FX’s Snowfall. Alan is repped by AKA Talent and Main Title.
Hedlund is coming out in Triple Frontier and Dirt Music. He is repped by Brillstein, WME and Sloane Offer.
Weigert will play Crysilda Wilkes, Annie’s mother. Gadon is Rita Green, a vengeful woman from Annie’s past. Wright will portray Valerie, a kind-hearted local who explores the town’s evil history. Grunberg is Sheriff Boucher, a local official, who faces off against a brewing, dark force in Castle Rock.
Sam Shaw & Dustin Thomason developed the project for television and serve as executive producers along with J.J. Abrams, Ben Stephenson, Dustin Thomason, Vince Calandra, Sam Shaw, Stephen King and Liz Glotzer. Castle Rock hails from Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television.
Weigert played the role of Calamity Jane in Deadwood the series and reprised her role in Deadwood: The Movie. She can currently be seen in the role of Dr. Amanda Reisman on HBO’s Big Little Lies.
Gadon most recently played Elisa Montgomery in HBO’s True Detective and will next be seen with Eli Harboe in feature The Northwoods from writer-director Emma Higgins.
Wright, known for her role as FBI secretary Martha Hanson on FX’s The Americans, recently recurred on Sneaky Pete. She’ll next be seen as a series regular on dystopian thriller series Snowpiercer on TNT.
Grunberg is best known for his roles as Matt Parkman in NBC’s Heroes and Snap Wexley in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. He’ll next be seen reprising his Snap Wexley role in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
Overall, this new look gives us a good sense of what's coming in season 2, without giving too much away. The new season will consist of 10-episodes. The full cast includes Lizzy Caplan, Tim Robbins, Paul Sparks, Yusra Warsama, Barkhad Abdi, Elsie Fisher and Matthew Alan. Castle Rock season 2 centers on a feud between warring clans in the town that comes to a boiling point when budding psychopath Annie Wilkes makes her way to this little, creepy town. This town has been featured in a number of Stephen King's works over the years, such as Cujo, IT, The Dead Zone and The Body, which served as the basis of Stand By Me. The series attempts to connect all of the dots between the author's massive multiverse.
Aside from the trailer, we'll be learning a lot more about the return of Castle Rock later this week. The series will be taking to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, on Wednesday, October 2, at 9 p.m. ET for what is being billed as a live, 13-minute drive that will provide fans with a driver's seat view as the car winds through the woods en route to Jerusalem's Lot, ultimately leading to an exclusive sneak peek at season 2. Along the way, viewers will see and hear easter eggs from the Stephen King and Bad Robot universes, in addition to a few hints at what's to come this season.