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Lovecraft Country: Luther's Wunmi Mosaku Joins Jordan Peele, J.J. Abrams HBO Series
Wunmi Mosaku (Kiri, The End of the F**king World) will be joining lead opposite previously announced Jonathan Majors and Jurnee Smollett-Bell in HBO's upcoming drama series Lovecraft Country, Deadline Hollywood reports.
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's 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.
Mosaku will play Rudy Dandridge, a hustler just like her half-sister Leticia, only her hustles haven't paid off. Her family ties are tested when she's presented with an offer she can't refuse. The actress is also set to appear opposite Idris Elba in the upcoming season of Luther and soon begins filiming the lead in New Regency's His House.
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 1950s 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.
"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
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.