There have been a whole lot of Stephen King adaptations over the years, but studios and producers are even more interested in developing King projects now, in the wake of IT's massive box office success. There's a lot of King news to report these days, and just over the weekend there were two casting announcements for major upcoming King productions.
First up, director Andy Muschietti has finished assembling the adult version of IT's Losers Club that we'll be seeing in the "twenty-seven years later" sequel IT: CHAPTER 2. Joining fellow Losers Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, James Ransone, Jay Ryan, and Andy Bean is Isaiah Mustafa, taking on the role of adult Mike Hanlon.
Chosen Jacobs played the child Mike Hanlon in the first IT, and was able to announce Mustafa's casting on his Instagram account. Mustafa starred on the recently cancelled Freeform series Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments, but may be best known for being the guy from the Old Spice commercials.
While Muschietti and his cast prepare to start filming IT: CHAPTER 2 this summer, Hulu is preparing to start airing the King-inspired series Castle Rock, which is
named after the fictional town in King’s native Maine that is featured prominently in a number of his novels, novellas, and short stories. It combines the mythological scale and intimate character storytelling of King’s best-loved works, weaving an epic saga of darkness and light, played out on a few square miles of Maine woodland.
During an appearance at the ATX Television Festival in Austin, Castle Rock creators Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason revealed that actress Allison Tolman is in the show's cast, playing the recurring role of the sister of a character played by Melanie Lynskey. I'm a big fan of Tolman, who had a breakthrough role on the Fargo TV series before being cast in the holiday horror movie KRAMPUS, so I'm glad to hear she'll be on this show.
Tolman and Lynskey are joined in the cast of Castle Rock by Jane Levy, Terry O'Quinn, Scott Glenn, André Holland, Sissy Spacek, and IT stars Bill Skarsgård and Chosen Jacobs.
The first three episodes of the show's ten episode first season will be available for viewing through Hulu as of July 25th.