Scheduled to premiere in August, Mr. Mercedes casts Brendan Gleeson (the Harry Potter franchise) as a retired police detective who finds himself the target of a murderer’s taunts and becomes drawn into an unofficial investigation of a mysterious, psychopathic killer.
The series was penned by 10-time Primetime Emmy Award winner David E. Kelley (Boston Legal, Ally McBeal, The Practice) and directed by Emmy-winning Lost and Game of Thrones director Jack Bender. The series unfolds over 10 episodes, with Kelley and Bender serving as executive producers.
Along with Gleeson as weathered former detective Bill Hodges, the series features Penny Dreadful actor Harry Treadaway as Brady Hartsfield, the demented killer pushing Hodges out of retirement. The cast also includes Kelly Lynch (Magic City, Road House) as Deborah Hartsfield, Jharrel Jerome (Moonlight) as Jerome Robinson, Scott Lawrence (Avatar) as Detective Peter Dixon, Robert Stanton (Mercury Rising) as Anthony Frobisher, Breeda Wool (Unreal) as Lou Linklatter, Justine Lupe (Francis Ha) as Holly Gibney, Ann Cusack (Nightcrawler) as Olivia Trelawney, Mary Louise-Parker (Weeds) as Janey Patterson, and Holland Taylor (The Truman Show) as Ida Silver.
First published in June 2014, Mr. Mercedes was King’s first hardboiled detective story, according to the author, and was followed by two sequels. The original novel reached the top of The New York Times bestseller list, and was optioned for adaptation shortly thereafter. King then penned two sequels to the book: 2015’s Finders Keepers and 2016’s End of Watch.
According to King, the inspiration for the story came from a real-world event in which a woman drove her car into a McDonald’s restaurant, as a vehicular mass murder is the event that kicks off King’s story. The story was initially expected to be a short story, but evolved into a much larger tale, the author explained. The series is one of several adaptations of his work hitting theaters and television screens soon, along with The Dark Tower movie and the upcoming remake of It.
Mr. Mercedes will premiere on AT&T’s Audience network August 9 at 8 p.m. ET, as well as on DirecTV channel 239, U-Verse channel 1114, or via the DirecTV Now on-demand streaming service.
