We first heard that Cape Fear was being adapted for the small screen back in 2023, and late last year,it was announced that Apple TV+ has ordered a 10-episode series with Nick Antosca on board as writer, executive producer, and showrunner.
The project also has two filmmaking legends involved, with Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese set to executive produce.
Javier Bardem (Dune: Part Two, Skyfall) is set to play Max Cady, and Deadline is now reporting that he'll be joined by Amy Adams (Man of Steel, Nightbitch) as Amanda Bowden. The Academy Award-nominee is also on board as an executive producer.
With Adams in this role, there's a good chance her character will be brought more to the forefront, and there's speculation that Amanda will be Cady's former attorney in this take on the story (the synopsis below may support this).
The show will be based on the John D. MacDonald novel The Executioners, which inspired both the original 1962 Universal Pictures adaptation and Scorsese's brutally violent film starring De Niro, Nick Nolte and Jessica Lang in the lead roles.
Described as a "tense, Hitchcockian thriller and an examination of America’s obsession with true crime in the 21st century, a storm is coming for happily married attorneys Amanda and Steve Bowden when Max Cady (played by Bardem), a notorious killer from their past, gets out of prison."
This is a slight departure from the novel and previous adaptations, in which only Sam was a lawyer. Their marriage really couldn't be described as happy, either.
Antosca is executive producing under his Eat the Cat banner along with Alex Hedlund. Bardem will also executive produce. Spielberg, Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey will executive produce for Amblin Television. UCP will produce, with Anthosca currently under an overall deal at the studio. Amblin previously worked with Apple on the World War II series Masters of the Air and the episodic anthology Amazing Stories.
What do you make of this news? Any interest on a new take on Cape Fear? Check out the trailer for Scorsese's movie below, and be sure to share your thoughts in the comments section.
When attorney Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) knowingly withholds evidence that would acquit violent sex offender Max Cady (Robert De Niro) of rape charges, Max spends 14 years in prison. But after Max's release, knowing about Sam's deceit, he devotes his life to stalking and destroying the Bowden family. When practical attempts to stop Max fail, Sam realizes that he must act outside the law to protect his wife and daughter in Martin Scorsese's remake of the classic 1962 thriller.