Frances Conroy is once again dabbling in the horror genre.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Conroy has just been cast as the lead in Spike’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Mist. The series, based on King’s 1980 novella of the same name, was picked up straight-to-series for 10 episodes and will be a return to ongoing scripted series for Spike. Christian Torpe (Rita, Silent Heart) will write and executive produce and shooting is set to start this summer with the goal of premiering in 2017.
The Emmy-nominated Conroy (Casual, Six Feet Under, American Horror Story) is set to play nature-lover Nathalie, a woman who finds it easier to connect with the nature around her than other people. The Mist centers on a small town and the chaos and madness that ensues as a result of an eerie fog rolling in that is hiding something sinister.
Spike’s adaptation of King’s The Mist is not the first attempt to bring the story to the screen. In 2007 Frank Darabont (The Blob, The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption) wrote and directed a film version of the novella starring Thomas Jane (Hung, Deep Blue Sea, Boogie Nights). In the former The Walking Dead showrunner’s film the ending was changed from King’s original work, which received very mixed reactions from loyal King fans upon release. Although Darabont’s ending is much darker than King’s original one, and King has been known to dislike certain film and TV adaptations of his works, King was surprisingly quite pleased with the new ending. According to Cinemablend, King spoke at a press conference before the film’s release in 2007 and said, “Frank wrote a new ending that I loved. It is the most shocking ending ever and there should be a law passed stating that anybody who reveals the last 5 minutes of this film should be hung from their neck until dead.”
The Mist comes from Dimension Television. Along with Torpe, Amanda Segel will executive produce and Vlad Wolynetz wil co-executive produce. Sharon Levy, Ted Gold and Lauren Ruggiero oversee for Spike, while Megan Spanjian, Matthew Signer and Keith Levine will oversee the series for Dimension Television. Executive producing under The Weinstein Co./Dimension TV are David Glasser and Bob and Harvey Weinstein.