An evening … thrilling: Friday 17 June Sky and NOW are tinged with horror with the original series The village of the damned. The project revisits and modernizes a science fiction classic, the 1963 novel by John Wyndham, The children of the invasion (Mondadori), already capable of inspiring three film adaptations (that of ’95 signed by John Carpenter is the last role of Christopher Reeve before the paralysis due to an accident).
To do this, it focuses on two well-known faces of the small screen who play doctor Susannah Zellaby and Cassie Stone. The lead couple is made up of two BAFTA nominated actorsKeeley Hawes of the British gem It’s a sin and Max Beesely of Suits (the legal drama that launched Meghan Markle before she took a break from Hollywood to become the Duchess of Sussex).
Alice Troughton (A Discovery of Witches) is the lead director, collaborating with Jennifer Perrott (Gentleman Jack) and Börkur Sigthorsson (Trapped). Executive producers are Marc Samuelson and Robert Cheek for Route 24 and Ruth Kenley-Letts and Neil Blair for Snowed-In Productions. The producer of the series is Eliza Mellor (Poldark).
The short story, written by David Farr, Sasha Hails, Namsi Khan and Laura Lomas, revolves around a town in the south of England, Midwich, one of those isolated and somewhat lost places where nothing sensational ever happens and where secrets are kept tightly within the home. But something changes when some of the locals begin to lose consciousness. And not only them: it also happens to the animals of the same area, which for twelve hours do not regain consciousness.
It is as if a kind of area shielded from everything and everyone had been created, where technology no longer reaches and for no apparent reason. The consequences of this half day of total and inexplicable blackout they manifest themselves immediately: all women of childbearing age become pregnant.
The children of this phenomenon are renamed The Midwich Cuckoos for the peculiar characteristics that distinguish them. In fact, a profound rift has been created within the community. Suspicions and discontent have crept in and that cohesion of the past has vanished in the blink of an eye.
The tension remains palpable and seems to bring the inhabitants to the brink of the abyss, ready to sharpen their knives against each other, not to mention these little disturbing presences around the town. In short, the candor of childhood is totally transformed into the worst nightmare (and not just for parents).
Other stories of Vanity Fair that may interest you:
Johnny Depp in the pub after the verdict
The reactions of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard after the verdict
That’s why the star won
Source: Vanity Fair
