All the way back in December of 2019, when things were just “very bad” instead of “worldwide pandemic bad”, Epix announced it was giving a ten-episode, straight-to-series order for a show to be based on Stephen King’s 1978 short story “Jerusalem’s Lot”. The series would star Adrien Brody, we were told, and based on the initial plot description (via Deadline), it was clear that the source material was being expanded and tweaked in a number of ways:
“Set in the 1850s, the series follows Captain Charles Boone (Brody), who relocates his family of three children to his ancestral home in the small, seemingly sleepy town of Preacher’s Corners, Maine after his wife dies at sea. However, Charles will soon have to confront the secrets of his family’s sordid history, and fight to end the darkness that has plagued the Boones for generations.”
The Deadline announcement also cheerfully informed us that the series was expected to begin rolling out in “Fall 2020”, and…well, we all know how that turned out.
But here’s the good news! Epix’s Chapelwaite (one presumes the new title is intended to prevent viewer-confusion from anyone expecting Salem’s Lot) made it through the nightmarish production woes of 2020, is headed our way next month and they’ve got a fancy new trailer to tease the horrors that lay in wait for us once we subscribe to Epix.
Take a look:
So, what do we think? It certainly looks like they’ve given this would-be prestige horror series the attention (read: budget) it deserves! There’s atmosphere to spare here, the time period details look authentic, and Brody appears to fit as snugly into a 1850’s-set horror story as he does into those fancy-lad duds he’s wearing. King purists might be rankled by some of the changes they’ve made to the original text, I suppose, but come on: they were never gonna’ get a whole-ass series out of that single short story. Such things are to be expected.
Chapelwaite premieres August 22nd, folks. We’ll be tuning in.
