We've seen Jordan Peele win an Oscar for GET OUT, follow that up with US, and host the latest revival of The Twilight Zone. Next year we'll see the CANDYMAN film that he's writing and producing, and sometime in the near future we have another Peele genre project to look forward to: a TV series adaptation of the Matt Ruff novel Lovecraft Country, which is set up at HBO.
Lovecraft Country will show us what happens when
Atticus Black joins up with his friend Letitia and his Uncle George to embark on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America in search of his missing father. Thus begins a struggle to survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and the terrifying monsters that could be ripped from a Lovecraft paperback.
Jonathan Majors, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, and Courtney B. Vance are playing Atticus, Letitia, and Uncle George, with Aunjanue Ellis as George's wife Hippolyta; Wunmi Mosaku as Letitia's less successful hustler sister Ruby; Jamie Harris as country sheriff Eunice Hunt; Michael Kenneth Williams as Atticus's missing father, Montrose Freeman; Jamie Chung as nursing student Ji-Ah; Abbey Lee (replacing Elizabeth Debicki) as Christina Braithwhite, "the only daughter of Samuel Braithwhite, the leader of a secret order calling themselves the Sons of Adam"; and Jordan Patrick Smith as Christina's henchman William.
Now the names of three cast members who have recurring roles on the show have been announced.
Taking on the role of Hillary, "an outdoorsy woman who migrates to the big city – where her dreams turn into nightmares", is Jamie Neumann, who can be seen on AMC's NOS4A2 and the Netflix / Marvel series Jessica Jones.
Erica Tazel, perhaps best known for playing Rachel Brooks on Justified, joins Lovecraft Country as Dora Freeman, "a spitfire personality and life of every party, who enjoys nights on the town with her beloved, boozy husband Montrose."
Mac Brandt, who played a character named Mac on four seasons of DirecTV's Kingdom, has signed on to play Lancaster, "a former thug who grew up on the streets of Chicago and is more brawn than brain, he’s strong armed his way to the head of Chicago PD’s organized crime unit, where his corruption has been allowed to thrive."
A collaboration between Monkeypaw Productions, Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. Television, Lovecraft Country is being executive produced by Peele, writer Misha Green, director Daniel Sackheim, JJ Abrams, Ben Stephenson, Bill Carraro, and pilot director Yann Demange.
I'm not familiar with Ruff's novel (which can be purchased at THIS LINK), but Lovecraft Country sounds interesting to me. I'll give it a look whenever it's released. HBO hasn't announced a premiere date yet.