The Haunting of Bly Manor Will Include Several Henry James Stories
It looks like the new season will be more than just an adaptation of The Turn of the Screw.
By Chris Morse
Although Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Bly Manor is set to adapt Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, the filmmaker says the new season will be so much more than that story alone. In fact, he recently revealed in an interview with GamesRadar+ that the show will be drawing upon the author’s collection of other ghost stories as well.
“The thing I have access to, that no other adaptation of The Turn of to the Screw has, is the rest of Henry James’ ghost stories,” revealed Flanagan. “I get to use all of them. The Turn of the Screw has been adapted so many times. We know how perfectly it fits into a feature film format. We're doing a whole season of television. The Turn of the Screw is only one of a dozen stories that we're telling. All Henry James; all thematically linked.”
"I think of [The Turn of the Screw] as the backbone of this season – the through line that carries us from beginning to end,” he continued. “But we get to go off into The Jolly Corner and The Romance of Certain Old Clothes, and so many other of these wonderful ghost stories that people haven't seen adapted before. It's all wrapped up in what seems to be familiar, but that familiarity goes away really early in the first episode. It says, 'We're off on a whole other road.'"
Overall, the new story will be centered around Henry James’ 1898 horror novella, The Turn of the Screw, which tells the story of a governess who becomes convinced that the grounds of her remote estate are haunted as she raises her two children there. Much like with The Haunting of Hill House, we can expect this adaptation of the source material to be somewhat loose, but we have no doubt it will be every bit as gripping and terrifying as Hill House was.
Leading the cast of the new season are returning Hill House stars Victoria Pedretti and Oliver Jackson-Cohen, who played the adult versions of Nell and Luke Crain, respectively. Younger Hugh actor Henry Thomas is also returning from the first season, along with adult Theo actress Kate Siegel and Catherine Parker, who played Poppy Hill. They will be joined by Rahul Kohli (iZombie), T’Nia Miller, Amelia Eve, Amelie Smith, and Benjamin Ainsworth.
The Haunting of Bly Manor will premiere sometime in 2020, but no specific date has been given at this time. Directing episodes of the new season are Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep), Yolanda Ramke and Ben Howling (Cargo), Ciarán Foy (Eli), Liam Gavin (A Dark Song), and Axelle Carolyn (Tales of Halloween’s “Grim Grinning Ghost”). Be sure to stay tuned to Dead Entertainment for all the latest news and updates on the Haunting series in the coming weeks and months.
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