John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novel Let the Right One In was only published in 2004, but it’s already been subjected to multiple live-action adaptations. The 2008 movie was an international phenomenon, boasting a 98% Rotten Tomatoes score, and it was swiftly followed by an American remake.
Two years later, Matt Reeves’ Let Me In arrived, with Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloe Grace Moretz in the lead roles. Reviews were strong once again, but the vampiric chiller bombed at the box office. A TV pilot was initially ordered at TNT in 2017 before the network ended up dropping it from the potential slate, with Showtime stepping in earlier this year to resurrect it.
Showtime has now officially ordered Let the Right One in for a ten-episode first season set to begin production early next year, as per Deadline. Academy Award nominee Demián Bichir will lead the ensemble as the father of a 12-year-old girl who was turned into a vampire a decade previously, heading out to get her the blood she needs to survive while keeping her locked indoors.
Andrew Hinderaker, who created Netflix’s canceled sci-fi Away and previously worked as a staff writer on Penny Dreadful, is set as showrunner, while the pilot will be helmed by Seith Mann, a veteran TV director with episodes The Wire, Sons of Anarchy, Friday Night Lights, The Walking Dead, Homeland and more to his name. Bichir is joined by Anika Noni Rose, Grace Gummer, Madison Taylor Baez, Kevin Carroll, Ian Foreman and Jacob Buster in the cast, which could turn out to be TV’s next big horror hit.