Let the Right One In: Madison Taylor Baez cast as vampire in Showtime pilot

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

The John Ajvide Lindqvist novel Let the Right One In (buy it HERE) has served as the inspiration for a 2008 Swedish film directed by Tomas Alfredson (watch that HERE), which was my favorite movie released in that year, as well as a 2010 English-language film directed by Matt Reeves (watch that one HERE). Now Showtime is developing the pilot for a television series based on Let the Right One In, and they have cast the role of the young vampire at the center of the story. Madison Taylor Baez, who played a young Selena in Netflix's Selena: The Series, will be playing the vampire Eleanor.

Directed by Seith Mann from a script by showrunner Andrew Hinderaker, this take on Let the Right One In centers on 

Mark and his 12-year-old daughter, whose lives were changed forever 10 years earlier when she was turned into a vampire. Locked in at age 12, perhaps forever, Eleanor lives a closed-in life, able to go out only at night, while her father does his best to provide her with the minimal amount of human blood she needs to stay alive.

Here's a little more information: 

After she was bitten by a mysterious creature, Eleanor and her father, Mark, were forced to live in the shadows and commit shameful acts to keep her alive. When she returns to New York City, Eleanor meets a friend who reignites her desire to regain her humanity, even as her condition brings out an animalistic power.

Baez joins a cast that includes Demián Bichir, Anika Noni Rose, Grace Gummer, Kevin Carroll, Jacob Buster, and Ian Foreman.

Bichir is Eleanor's father Mark; Rose will be playing Mark's next door neighbor, who happens to be a homicide detective; Gummer takes on the role of Claire, ""the heiress of a pharmaceutical empire and a brilliant scientist"; Carroll's character is Zeke Dawes, "the charismatic owner of a successful restaurant and one of Mark’s oldest confidants as well as one of the few people who know about Eleanor’s condition"; Buster is Peter, "who suffers the same affliction as Eleanor. When his father tests a potential cure on him that backfires, a terrifying monster is unleashed"; and Foreman will be playing Isaiah, "the quiet, sensitive, and small for his age kid who loves magic and is an easy target for the other boys at school. He does find a true friend in Eleanor, but has no idea the threat she poses".

These character descriptions reveal that this Let the Right One In is going to be very different from any version of the story we've seen or read before.

This Let the Right One In is being described as "an elevated genre drama, which is turning a naturalistic lens on human frailty, strength and compassion".

Hinderaker is executive producing the pilot with Mann and Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements for Tomorrow Studios, a partnership between Adelstein and ITV Studios. If the show receives a series order, Bichir will receive a producer credit on the series.