Another day, another Stephen King adaptation. The latest show to come from King’s deep bench of stories is Epix’s Chapelwaite, a gothic horror set in the 1850s. The premium cable channel just released a trailer for the project, which shows off a creepy thriller starring Adrian Brody as he and his family relocate to a small town in Maine.
The series is based on King’s 1978 short story, “Jerusalem’s Lot.” Set in the town of Preacher’s Corners, Maine, it follows the story of Captain Charles Boone, who moves there after his wife dies at sea. In the trailer, we learn that he gets a letter from a soon-to-be-dead cousin, who bequeaths their family’s ancestral home, Chapelwaite, to him. The series was announced last year, with Emily Hampshire (Schitt’s Creek) set to play Rebecca Morgan, a woman who returns home to write a story and befriends Charles.
The series was written by Jason and Peter Filardi, who are also serving as showrunners. Burr Steers, who directed Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is helming the first two episodes. He’s joined by Rachel Leiterman (Lost in Space, Man in the High Castle), Michael Nankin (Van Helsing, The Exorcist), and Jeff Renfroe (Killjoys, The Hardy Boys), who each direct two episodes.
The story is a prequel of sorts to King’s novel ‘Salem’s Lot, about a writer in the 1970s who returns to the town of Jerusalem’s Lot to write a book. He arrives when a young boy goes missing, and soon learns that the town is home to vampires. The book was adapted for television in 1979 and 2004, and there’s a new film adaptation on the way, with Annabelle Comes Home director Gary Dauberman set to direct. The town of Jerusalem’s Lot was referenced in Hulu’s King-inspired series, Castle Rock.
Judging from the trailer for this series, it looks as though Chapelwaite will capture a lot of that creeping horror, with a few updates—Charles moves into the Chapelwaite house with his mixed-race children (which causes a stir in town), and we get a sense that the town’s inhabitants have begun to blame the house for an illness that’s spread throughout the area. It looks as though the vampires make an appearance, and the house’s secrets will have a heavy toll on the family and their well-being.
Chapelwaite debuts on August 22nd.
