The premiere of the Lovecraft Country HBO series is just a week away now. The review embargo lifted this past Friday, and the advance reaction has been overwhelmingly positive.
First out of the gate is this rave from Alan Sepinwall at Rolling Stone, who says Lovecraft Country is “one of the best shows HBO has made in a long, long time.” Time magazine calls it “stunning” and “an absolutely wild ride.” And there’s a lot more in this vein.
Needless to say, I’m over the moon about all this—and I can’t wait till next Sunday.
Just in time for Comic-Con. Speaking of which, the cast will be doing a Comic-Con at Home panel discussion about the show tomorrow, July 25, starting at 4 PM Pacific. You’ll be able to watch it on YouTube once it goes live.
You can also join me online tomorrow at 5:30 PM Pacific, talking about my new novel, 88 Names, on a Zoom event hosted by Sunriver Books & Music. To sign up for this event, contact the bookstore by calling 541-593-2525 or email them at sunriverbooks@sunriverbooks.com.
In a series of tweets this week, Misha Green, Jordan Peele, and J.J. Abrams hinted that HBO was about to drop a trailer for Lovecraft Country. Sure enough, it’s here!
I know people are going to have a ton of questions about this, so here’s a quick Q&A:
What is this?
An HBO series based on my 2016 novel of the same name. You can read more about the book here.
Are you excited?
I’m bouncing off the walls with excitement. Can’t you tell?
Have you seen the show yet?
No. I read a draft of the pilot script, and visited the film set a couple of times, but this footage is as new to me as it is to you.
How faithful is the series to the novel?
Since I haven’t seen it yet, I can’t really say, but it’s a safe bet that, as with any adaptation, there will be changes, some large, some small.
How do you feel about that?
I’m fine with it. I already have my version of the story; I don’t need an exact copy. As it is, watching the trailer is like getting a glimpse of a parallel universe—one whose elements are familiar to me, but still different enough to feel fresh: There’s the Winthrop House; there’s the white citizens’ brigade who want Letitia out of the Winthrop House; there’s Hippolyta’s orrery; oh, wow, there’s the Braithwhites’ pet shoggoth. It’s a translation, for sure, but it’s cool.
Is there anything else people should know?
Online references to the show rightly credit executive producers Jordan Peele and J.J. Abrams, without whom this wouldn’t be happening, but they sometimes fail to mention Misha Green. As the series’ showrunner, Misha mapped out the season, wrote or co-wrote all of the scripts, and oversaw the day-to-day production. More than any other individual, the series’ success rests on her shoulders (no pressure, Misha!), so it’s only right that she should get credit too.
When will the show air?
August. I’ll let you know the exact date once HBO announces it.
Last week, HBO dropped a trailer for its 2020 lineup that included a few seconds of teaser footage from Lovecraft Country. There’s still no official air date yet, but now we know it will be sometime next year.
In other news, I was a guest on Open Source with Christopher Lydon for the Halloween special, which was about the legacy of H.P. Lovecraft. Also on the program were Joyce Carol Oates, Paul La Farge, and Silvia Moreno-Garcia. You can listen to it here.
This is amazing news, and also very surreal for me: Back before the book was even optioned, when I would play the “Who would you cast as X?” game, Williams as Montrose was always one of my first picks, though I never in a million years believed it might actually happen. In short, Wow!
They join Jonathan Majors (Atticus), Jurnee Smollett-Bell (Letitia), and Wunmi Mosaku (Ruby).
Meanwhile, series showrunner Misha Green tweets that she and director Yann Demange are location scouting in Chicago. So this is really happening. I still can’t quite believe it.
HBO has announced two more casting decisions for the Lovecraft Country series: Jonathan Majors will play the lead role of Atticus, and Wunmi Mosaku will play Ruby Dandridge. This follows last week’s announcement that Jurnee Smollett-Bell will play Letitia.
And a quick reminder, Seattle Crypticon starts tomorrow. I’ll be on the “Adaptations: Books vs. Movies” panel with Bob Foster, Will Errickson, and T.J. Tranchell tomorrow night at 6 PM. You can find the rest of my con schedule here.
…so that’s one great thing the new year has going for it.
Also, a reminder for my fans and friends in the Bay Area: Tomorrow, Sunday, January 14, I’ll be appearing on stage at the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library (100 Larkin St.) with Victor LaValle and Nnedi Okorafor, as part of the 2018 Black Comix Arts Festival. Doors open at 1 PM and the event starts at 2; we’ll be hanging out and signing books afterwards.
