LaKeith Stanfield (Get Out, Judas and the Black Messiah) has signed on to star in the Apple TV+ series The Changeling – which is not a remake of the 1980 Peter Medak horror film of the same name (which you can watch at THIS LINK), but rather an adaptation of author Victor LaValle’s recent novel. (Buy a copy of LaValle’s novel HERE.)
Venom screenwriter Kelly Marcel has written the adaptation and serves as showrunner, while Queen & Slim‘s Melina Matsoukas will be directing the series.
Coming to us from Annapurna and Apple Studios, The Changeling is described as “a fairytale for grown-ups. A horror story, a parenthood fable and a perilous odyssey through a New York City you didn’t know existed”.
Stanfield is taking on the role of Apollo in the story. LaValle’s novel has the following description:
When Apollo and Emma have their baby, Brian, it feels like both a reward and a challenge for the new dad. Apollo, the son of a single mother, had been scraping by as a bookseller who hunts estate and garage sales for rare first editions, so even the unusual circumstance of Brian’s birth (on a stalled subway train) seems like a blessing, as does the way Apollo stumbles across a first edition of To Kill a Mockingbird (inscribed by Harper Lee to Truman Capote, no less) shortly thereafter. But after some young-parent squabbles and inexplicable images on their smartphones foreshadow trouble, the story turns nightmarish.
The Changeling is being executive produced by Annapurna’s Megan Ellison, Sue Naegle, Patrick Chu, and Ali Krug. Matsoukas is executive producing through her company De La Revolución Films. Stanfield and Marcel are also executive producing, with Khaliah Neal on board as co-executive producer.
I haven’t read LaValle’s novel, but it sounds good to me. I’m interested in finding out what sort of horrific, nightmarish directions the story goes in.