Prime Video is turning Stephen King’s 1980 Lovecraftian short story “Crouch End” into a six-part limited series, the first King adaptation made in the UK.
In King’s story, as Bloody Disgusting describes it, an American couple lose their way on a trip to London and wander into another dimension. The series changes that setup. It centres on global movie star Doris Freeman, who bursts into a London police station claiming strange phenomena are behind her husband’s disappearance. Police inspector Ted Vetter must work out whether she’s telling the truth.
The show has been greenlit, and Variety says casting is already underway, with “lots of interest”. Prime Video hasn’t announced a cast, release date, or footage yet. Its synopsis leaves open whether Freeman could be a murderer, or whether “something even more chilling” is at play.
Paul Tomalin, writer of Bodies, is writing the series. Tom Shankland, whose credits include Berlin Noir and The Serpent, directs. Mammoth Screen (Hercule, The Serpent) and Fifth Season (East of Eden, Severance) produce, and the executive producers are Tomalin, Shankland, Damien Timmer, Rebecca Keane, and Ben Irving.
Stephen King is one of the defining storytellers of our time, and we’re thrilled to bring his Lovecraftian tale to life in London with Crouch End.
Nicole Clemens, VP International Originals, Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios
Clemens adds the show will “grip audiences worldwide with its visceral crime thriller and supernatural mystery”. Tomalin says King’s prose has “haunted my nightmares” since he read the story some years back, and Shankland promises a series that is “cinematic, original and thought-provoking in equal measure”.
A story with history
King wrote “Crouch End” as a homage to H.P. Lovecraft. It first appeared in the 1980 anthology New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos and was reprinted in his 1993 collection Nightmares & Dreamscapes. It’s his only story set in London and takes its name from a North London district. Bloody Disgusting says it was inspired by a UK trip King made to see fellow author Peter Straub.
Gizmodo describes the original’s framing as two night-shift cops recounting the disappearance. The adaptation swaps that framing for a film star and a lead inspector.
It isn’t the first screen version. A 2006 episode of TNT’s Nightmares & Dreamscapes starred Claire Forlani as Doris Freeman, and Tim Curry narrated an audio version.
Part of Prime Video’s King push
The series joins Prime Video’s UK originals slate, which Variety lists as including Dirty, The Boys of Tommen, Bait, Clarkson’s Farm, and The Girlfriend.
Prime Video’s other King show is Mike Flanagan’s Carrie, with a second season renewal already announced.
