Hot off the back of his standout supporting role in David Fincher’s Gone Girl, Patrick Fugit has bagged the lead in Cinemax’s upcoming exorcism drama, Outcast. The Walking Dead‘s Robert Kirkman is on board to executive produce the show, which is based on the original comic he co-created with artist Paul Azaceta. Horror director Adam Wingard (You’re Next) is being eyed to direct the pilot.
The show will center on Fugit’s character, Kyle Barnes, who’s described as “a young man who’s been plagued by possession since he was a child. He sets out to seek answers, only to uncover something that could end all life on Earth as we know it.”
Joining him, or by the sounds of it, making his life a pain in the butt will be British TV actor, Philip Glenister (Life On Mars, Ashes To Ashes), who’s set to play “Reverend Anderson, a hard drinking, hard gambling West Virginian evangelical preacher who believes he’s a soldier in God’s holy war against evil.” Rounding out this first round of casting recruits is Gabriel Bateman (Annabelle), who’s signed on as “8-year-old Joshua Austin, a young boy who lives across town who appears to be possessed by a demon and has a mysterious connection to Kyle.”
All three casting choices aren’t seemingly obvious picks, but then again, Wingard has built a reputation out of crafting unique frightful features that incorporate largely unknown casts. Overall, the trifecta of Fugit-Wingard-Kirkman is an incredibly appealing combination to bring this adaptation to the small screen. A process which has been going on for some time.
The original comic series hit shelves this past summer, but the pilot had already been scripted. In fact, Kirkman’s initial deal with Cinemax was announced a year ago! There’s little surprise there as his name is synonymous with genre smashes. Case and point, The Walking Dead. AMC’s shuffling series is at the beginning of its fifth season on TV, and it’s showing no sign of slowing down as it continues to draw in huge ratings every week. There’s little doubt that the network are hoping to replicate the immense success of TWD with Outcast, and now that there’s a smattering of casting news, we might be seeing that pilot sooner than we thought.
