Jordan Peele and “Underground” co-creator Misha Green have teamed up to bring author Matt Ruff’s “Lovecraft Country” to the small screen, receiving a straight-to-series order at HBO.
Peele shared the news on Twitter today.
Focusing on members of two black families, and described as “a devastating kaleidoscopic portrait of racism” (Amazon), the “Lovecraft Country” series adaptation will be executive produced by Peele via his Monkeypaw Productions, along with Green, who will also write.
Here’s the story “Lovecraft Country” tells, courtesy of the publisher: Chicago, 1954. When his father Montrose goes missing, 22-year-old Army veteran Atticus Turner embarks on a road trip to New England to find him, accompanied by his Uncle George—publisher of The Safe Negro Travel Guide—and his childhood friend Letitia. On their journey to the manor of Mr. Braithwhite—heir to the estate that owned one of Atticus’s ancestors—they encounter both mundane terrors of white America and malevolent spirits that seem straight out of the weird tales George devours. At the manor, Atticus discovers his father in chains, held prisoner by a secret cabal named the Order of the Ancient Dawn—led by Samuel Braithwhite and his son Caleb—which has gathered to orchestrate a ritual that shockingly centers on Atticus. And his one hope of salvation may be the seed of his—and the whole Turner clan’s—destruction.
Critics call it a “brilliant” and “wondrous” work that combines historical fiction, pulp noir, and “Lovecraftian” (named after horror fiction author H. P. Lovecraft) horror and fantasy.
JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot will also executive produce the Warner Bros. Television project.
No other details on the project are available at this time.
If you’ve read “Lovecraft Country,” please enlighten the rest of us with your thoughts and reactions.
If you have not, pick up a copy here.
Earlier this month, Peele inked a deal with Universal to produce what he’s labeled “social thrillers” to the screen; although this doesn’t appear to be a project that falls under that pact.
