HBO drops new teaser, release window for Lovecraft Country
By Dan Selcke
Lovecraft Country is one of the most exciting shows on the horizon, a cosmic horror tale coming to HBO this fall. And not just any cosmic horror tale: based on the novel by Matt Ruff, Lovecraft Country looks like it’s going to be all kinds of subversive. It’s about Atticus Black (Jonathan Majors), a black science fiction fan who returns to his hometown after getting a mysterious message from his missing father (Michael K. Williams, who you might remember as Omar Little from The Wire). Together with his friend Letitia “Leti” Dandridge (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and his uncle George (Courtney B. Vance), he set out on a road trip through the Jim Crow-era American South, into Lovecraft Country.
There’s a lot of power in the idea of combining the real horrors of the American South in the 1950s with the fake horrors of author H.P. Lovecraft, who wrote about unknowable monsters from the beyond driving men mad. And the choice of Lovecraft is definitely purposeful, because he was a notorious racist.
What’s scarier: extra-dimensional nightmare monsters or America’s horrifying history of white supremacy? It’s fertile thematic ground, and it looks like this show will sink its roots deep into it.
Lovecraft Country comes from Misha Green, who with Joe Pokaski co-created the WGN America show Underground, about American slaves taking the underground railroad out of the antebellum south. Star Wars: The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams is on board as a producer, as is Jordan Peele, the man behind movies like Get Out and Us, also horrific tales that dealt with America’s deep-seated racial issues.
The talent here is top-notch and the subject is exciting, so I’m really looking forward to taking in Lovecraft Country when it comes out this August.
Next. Why you should be looking forward to Lovecraft Country on HBO. dark
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