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'Hostiles' Jonathan Majors Taking HBO's Journey Through Lovecraft Country
Jonathan Majors (Hostiles) will be joining previously announced Jurnee Smollett-Bellhas on HBO's upcoming series roadtrip through Lovecraft Country. Adapted from Matt Ruff's novel of the same name, the project stems from Academy Award winner Jordan Peele's (Get Out) Monkeypaw Productions, J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot and Warner Bros Television. Yann Demange (Top Boy) will direct and executive produce the first episode; with Underground executive producer/showrunner/writer Misha Green writing the pilot and serving as showrunner, and executive producing alongside Peele, Abrams and Ben Stephenson.
"When I first read Lovecraft Country I knew it had the potential to be unlike anything else on television. Jordan, JJ, Bad Robot, Warner Bros and HBO are all in the business of pushing the limits when it comes to storytelling, and I am beyond thrilled to be working with them on this project." – Misha Green
Lovecraft Country introduces us to 25-year-old Koren war vet Atticus Black (Majors), who joins up with his friend Letitia "Leti" Dandridge (Smollett-Bell) and his Uncle George to embark on a road trip to find his missing father. Atticus, known for always having a pulp novel in his back pocket, wears his heart on his sleeve despite the daily injustice of living in 1950's Jim Crow America. The trio must survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and the malevolent spirits that could be ripped from a Lovecraft paperback.
Originally published in 2016, Harper's overview of Ruff's novel offers some insight on what viewers can expect:
Chicago, 1954. When his father Montrose goes missing, twenty-two year old Army veteran Atticus Turner embarks on a road trip to New England to find him, accompanied by his Uncle George—publisher of The Safe Negro Travel Guide—and his childhood friend Letitia. On their journey to the manor of Mr. Braithwhite—heir to the estate that owned Atticus's great grandmother—they encounter both mundane terrors of white America and malevolent spirits that seem straight out of the weird tales George devours.
At the manor, Atticus discovers his father in chains, held prisoner by a secret cabal named the Order of the Ancient Dawn—led by Samuel Braithwhite and his son Caleb—which has gathered to orchestrate a ritual that shockingly centers on Atticus. And his one hope of salvation may be the seed of his—and the whole Turner clan's—destruction.