Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Entertainment
  3. News

J.J. Abrams and Hulu team up for Stephen King crossover series 'Castle Rock'

Add as a preferred source on Google

The stories of horror novelist Stephen King have been adapted for the screen in various forms over the years, but an upcoming Hulu series intends to weave them all together with some help from J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot Productions.

Hulu, which previously worked with Bad Robot Productions on an adaptation of King’s novel 11.22.63, has ordered an initial, 10-episode first season of Castle Rock, an upcoming series that will blend the worlds of many of King’s most famous stories together in some form. A teaser trailer for the series was released over the weekend that cites many of King’s popular works that have all referenced the fictional Maine town of Castle Rock in one way or another.

Recommended Videos

Little is known about how the series will bring together the worlds of the stories set in or around Castle Rock, which include Cujo, It, The Body (the inspiration for the film Stand By Me), and Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (the inspiration for The Shawshank Redemption), as well as many other tales. the teaser trailer has been viewed more than 1 million times since it was released earlier this week.

Although details are scarce about what will happen in the series, there is some information out there about who will be behind the camera.

The series is being developed by Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason, who previously collaborated on the critically praised series Manhattan, which Shaw created and the pair wrote and produced together. The duo will serve as executive producers along with Abrams, who ranks among the most celebrated producers, directors, and all-around filmmakers in Hollywood these days.

Also serving on the creative team in some capacity is writer Marc Bernardin, who posted a photo announcing his involvement on the series this week after the teaser trailer’s debut. Bernardin was part of the writing team on the criminally short-lived series Alphas, and has penned several comic book series over the years along with serving as an entertainment news editor and writer at various points.

Production on Castle Rock is expected to begin later this year, but there’s no official premiere date for the series at this point.

Rick Marshall
Former Contributing Editor, Entertainment
A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…
Apple HomeView has a screen, an A18 chip, and a streaming problem
Apple built HomeView, but your iPhone still has to do the heavy lifting
Apple HomeView

Apple’s new HomeView smart display is meant to merge entertainment and smart home controls, but it has a surprising limitation: it can’t natively run several of Apple’s own apps. Users will need to connect an iPhone to access services including Apple TV, Apple Books audiobooks, Apple Music Classical and Apple News Plus, according to the Apple CarPlay Developer Guide.

That restriction begs the question of how useful HomeView will be as an entertainment device, especially when rival smart displays already have native access to popular streaming services. Apple has billed HomeView as a hub for the connected home, but the reliance on an iPhone might make the experience less convenient than advertised.

Read more
EXCLUSIVE: Mike Flanagan and Carrie cast discuss reinventing Stephen King’s horror classic
Mike Flanagan and Carrie cast on bringing King’s novel into the digital age
Joel Oulette, Arthur Conti, Amber Midthunder, Josie Totah, Mike Flanagan, Summer H. Howell, Samantha Sloyan, Alison Thornton, Kate Siegel and Matthew Lillard attend Prime Video PROMiere of new original series Carrie.

Horror master Mike Flanagan has brought Stephen King's Carrie to Prime Video with a new cast and a modern story. After her father's death, teenager Carrie White is forced out of seclusion and into a public high school, where she faces relentless bullying from her new peers. Eventually, Carrie uses her newfound telekinetic powers to exact vengeance, culminating in a bloody, brutal prom night.

Carrie stars Summer H. Howell, Samantha Sloyan, Siena Agudong, Alison Thornton, Joel Oulette, Josie Totah, Arthur Conti, Amber Midthunder, Matthew Lillard, and Kate Siegel. In an exclusive interview with Digital Trends, Flanagan and several cast members discussed reimagining King's horror classic for the digital age.

Read more
3 overlooked TV series on Peacock you can binge-watch this weekend (October 9-11)
These Peacock originals that deserve way more attention then they received.
a-friend-of-the-family-peacoc-tv-series-poster

Streaming platforms dump dozens of new shows into their catalogs every week, and finding a good one can feel like a chore. That's why I did the heavy lifting and pulled three binge-worthy series you can watch on Peacock. This weekend's watchlist has a quirky werewolf romance, a terrifying true-crime story, and a juicy high school whodunit.

We also have guides to the best new movies to stream, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best free movies, and the best movies on Amazon Prime Video.

Read more