Apple TV+ has found its third lead for the streamer’s upcoming Cape Fear series.
Patrick Wilson (the Conjuring franchise, FX’s Fargo) is joining Javier Bardem and Amy Adams in the series, an adaptation of the two previous Cape Fear films from 1991 and 1962 (which in turn were based on The Executioners, a 1957 novel by John D. MacDonald). Wilson will play Tom Bowden, an attorney married to fellow lawyer Anna (Adams).
As with the films, the Cape Fear series will follow what unfolds after killer Max Cady (Bardem) is released from prison and seeks out the Bowdens, whom he blames for his sentence. The show will add a 21st century wrinkle by also exploring America’s current true-crime obsession.
Nick Antosca (The Act, A Friend of the Family) is writing and executive producing Cape Fear. Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese — who produced and directed the 1991 film that starred Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte and Jessica Lange — are also executive producers along with Antosca’s Eat the Cat partner Alex Hedlund, Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey of Spielberg’s Amblin Television, Bardem and Adams. Universal Studio Group’s UCP, where Antosca has an overall deal, and Amblin Television are producing.
Along with the Conjuring franchise, Wilson stars in the Insidious horror series and directed its most entry, 2023’s Insidious: The Red Door. His credits also include DC’s Aquaman films, the 2009 Watchmen film, Little Children and HBO’s Angels in America, for which he earned an Emmy nomination. Wilson is repped by CAA, Anonymous Content and Hansen Jacobson.
