Bobby Cannavale is on watch(er)…
The 51-year-old half-Cuban American actor will star opposite Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale in The Watcher, a Netflix limited series from Ryan Murphy and his frequent collaborator Ian Brennan.
The Watcher reportedly follows a married couple (Watts, Cannavale) whose move into their dream home is being threatened by terrifying letters from a stalker, signed “The Watcher.”
This marks a reunion for Watts and Cannavale, who star together in the upcoming movie Once Upon a Time in Staten Island.
Filming is set to begin in the fall.
The series, which evokes the first season of Murphy’s hit American Horror Story, is inspired by the infamous “Watcher” house in New Jersey.
A couple bought the 1905 Dutch colonial revival in 2014 for nearly $1.4 million. They were forced to abandon their new home over chilling letters from “The Watcher,” who claimed to have been “watching” the house for decades. “I am the Watcher. Bring me your young blood,” one of the notes read.
The family put the house back on the market. It didn’t sell, and they rented it out. In 2017, the renter also received a sinister letter from “The Watcher,” too, threatening their life. The house ultimately sold in 2019 for $959,000. The identity of “The Watcher” remains a mystery.
In December 2018, after a ferocious bidding battle that involved six studios, Netflix landed The Watcher rights package that included an article by Reeves Wiedeman published on New York magazine’s website, The Cut, and the rights of the beleaguered homeowners. The seven-figure rights deal originally was for a feature with Joost and Schulman attached to direct.
Two-time Emmy winner Cannavale co-stars in the Netflix comedy movie Thunder Force. He next will be seen in the films Jolt, Seriously Red, Blonde and Lapham Rising and the upcoming Hulu limited series Nine Perfect Strangers.
