Demián Bichir is sinking his teeth into a new project…
Showtime has given a formal pilot green light to Let the Right One In, a vampire drama starring the 57-year-old Mexican Oscar-nominated actor.
The project hails from Andrew Hinderaker, who’ll serve as showrunner, Seith Mann, who will direct, and Tomorrow Studios, which has been the driver behind the project in its various incarnations for more than six years.
Inspired by the best-selling 2004 novel by Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist and its 2008 Swedish film adaptation, the series centers on a father, Mark (Bichir) and his 12-year-old daughter whose lives were changed forever 10 years earlier when she was turned into a vampire. Locked in at age 12, perhaps forever, Eleanor lives a closed-in life, able to go out only at night, while her father does his best to provide her with the minimal amount of human blood she needs to stay alive.
Bichir’s Mark is a husband and father who had the perfect life until it was turned upside down by a mysterious creature who bit his daughter (Eleanor) and then vanished into the night.
Let the Right One In, which had been in the works at Showtime for awhile and recently started casting the male lead, is described as an elevated genre drama, which is turning a naturalistic lens on human frailty, strength and compassion.
“Let the Right One In quickly establishes itself as a thrilling, high-stakes drama that asks the question: How far would you go to save your child from the monsters out there – would you risk becoming a monster yourself?” said Amy Israel, Showtime’s EVP, Scripted Programming. “Demián Bichir is one of the world’s most dynamic and engrossing actors, and his charisma and vulnerability will surely bring Andrew Hinderaker’s exquisite script to life, guided by Seith Mann’s deft direction. We couldn’t be more excited about the potential of this show.”
Bichir will serve as a producer on the potential series.
“The series is both a love letter to the original film, and a story entirely our own,” said Hinderaker. “And casting a true artist like Demián epitomizes our bold aspiration to be one of the most terrifying shows on TV, and one of the most moving.”
Let the Right One In was originally developed by Tomorrow Studios and set up at A&E and A+E Studios in 2015. A year later, it moved to TNT where a pilot was ordered and cast but did not go to production. That version was closer to the original source material and was described as an eerie drama about a young boy, long tormented by his classmates, who finds solace in a friendship with a charismatic female vampire who appears to be near his age. Tomorrow Studios shopped the project and it ultimately landed at Showtime for redevelopment with a new writer.
Bichir received an Oscar nomination for his performance in the film A Better Life, becoming the first Mexican-born actor to be nominated in that category since Anthony Quinn.
His most recent films include starring in George Clooney’s The Midnight Sky, Robin Wright’s Land and the upcoming Godzilla vs. Kong.
