Skip to main content

Apple’s next prestige series is a remake of a Hollywood classic

The minieseries is adapted from a film that has already been remade once.

Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men
Miramax

Apple TV+ has had a run of hugely successful prestige TV series, and it looks like it’s hoping to add another to the mix. Variety is reporting that the streamer is adapting Cape Fear to the smalls screen, and that Oscar-winner Javier Bardem is set to take on one of the lead roles.

According to the official logline: “A storm is coming for happily married attorneys Amanda and Steve Bowden when Max Cady (Bardem), a notorious killer from their past, gets out of prison.”

Recommended Videos

Apple has ordered 10 episodes of the series, which will be written by Nick Antosca and produced in part by Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese.

This series is an adaptation of two movies of the same name, the first of which was released in 1962 and starred Gregory Peck as a man being hunted by Robert Mitchum’s killer, a man he helped imprison. Scorsese himself also directed a version of the same story starring Nick Nolte and Robert De Niro. That film was released in 1991.

Bardem is an ideal person to turn to to fill the shoes once occupied by Mitchum and De Niro. Having won an Oscar for his portrayal of a psychopathic killer in No Country For Old Men, we know he’s more than capable of menace, and that’s exactly what he’ll need to bring to this role.

There’s no word yet on who will fill out the rest of the cast or when the series might eventually air. When it does, though, it’ll likely be one of the more terrifying shows Apple has put out yet.

Joe Allen
Contributor
Joe Allen is a freelance culture writer based in upstate New York. His work has been published in The Washington Post, The…
Looking for shows like Yellowstone? These series offer the same high-stakes drama
Kevin Costner's Western has a lot of similarities to these series
Kevin Costner as John Dutton in Yellowstone

In a world of TV that has seen massive changes in the last decade or so, it can be difficult for those who like more traditional series to find their favorite. Enter Yellowstone. This Western about the Dutton family has become the signature series on Paramount+ since it premiered in 2018. It has given older generations and newer ones alike a classically formatted family drama that reminds viewers of the olden days when you would sit down and watch Walker: Texas Ranger or Bonanza.

Yellowstone is still able to effectively tell a modern-looking story, though. Kevin Costner and a slew of other legendary actors have been at the forefront of the action, the direction is movie quality, and the music is immersive. Yellowstone maintains an old-school feel while advancing the Western genre in subtle ways. It can be hard to find similar series that aren't decades old, but we've found the best shows like Yellowstone from a variety of points in TV history for you to enjoy.

Read more
‘Cross’ is a massive hit for Amazon Prime Video, initial viewership numbers suggest
The series is the third biggest debut for an Amazon series this year.
Aldis Hodge in Cross

It might not have all the flash of a streaming service like Netflix, but Amazon Prime Video can command a pretty large audience. Variety is reporting that Cross, the series that adapts James Patterson's Alex Cross novels, has drawn 40 million viewers in the first 20 days of its release.

Prime Video says that those viewership numbers make Cross its third biggest series of the year, behind just the first season of Fallout and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2. Amazon had previously reported that Fallout hit 65 million viewers in 16 days, and Rings of Power hit 40 million in 11 days, growing to 55 million over the course of a month. It's also the streamer's sixth biggest launch of all time over the course of 20 days, with 55% of the show's audience coming from outside of the United States. Germany, the U.K., Brazil, Canada, and Spain, in particular, are apparently seeing “outsized performance.”

Read more
A classic NBC sitcom is getting a reboot at ABC
The original show followed a group of young doctors as they learned the ropes in a hospital.
The cast of Scrubs.

The mid-2000s was a golden age for sitcoms, especially on NBC. Recent reporting from Variety suggests that one of those shows is making a return. Bill Lawrence, who created Scrubs, is currently working on a reboot of the series. Lawrence went on to co-create series like Ted Lasso and Shrinking, and now, he's back at ABC working on a reboot.

The show originally aired on NBC before moving over to ABC for its final seasons. Lawrence is under an overall deal at Warner Bros. TV, but the company carved out space for him to work on the reboot. He would not serve as the showrunner if the show proceeded to a series, and no other deals or cast members are currently in place.

Read more