Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese have joined forces and they will collaborate to bring Universal’s classic thriller Cape Fear to television. They will produce it with Nick Antosca. Antosca will also write and showrun the series. Antosca’s contribution to the series will modernize the classic thriller into a look at America’s obsession with true crime. The show will follow a married pair of lawyers. They face the sins of their past when a killer is released from prison. Spielberg was originally slated to direct the remake of Cape Fear (1991). However, he passed the project on to Scorsese, and in turn, Scorsese gave Spielberg the project he had been working on, Schindler’s List.
About Cape Fear
Based on John D. MacDonald’s 1957 novel The Executioner, 1962’s Cape Fear starred Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum. Sam Bowden (Gregory Peck) plays a lawyer who finds himself in the crosshairs of merciless criminal Max Candy (Robert Mitchum). Max was sentenced to jail because of Bowden’s testimony. After getting out of prison, Cady wages a psychological war against Bowden and his family.
Scorsese remade the film in 1991, with Robert Di Niro playing Cady and Nick Nolte as Bowden. The supporting actors in the film are Jessica Lange, Joe Don Baker, Juliette Lewis, Gregory Peck, and Robert Mitchum in small roles. It was a massive success making over $180 million on a $35 million budget and netting Academy Award nominations for Juliette Lewis and De Niro. The 1991 remake was a significant inspiration for one of The Simpsons’ finest hours.
Here’s the logline for the “Cape Fear” re-imagining: “A storm is coming for a pair of married attorneys when an infamous killer from their past gets released after years in prison. A tense, contemporary thriller that examines America’s obsession with true crime in the 21st century.”
The Cape Fear television series is currently in pre-production.
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