After Birdbox, Netflix looking for their next big film hit. And it looks like another literary adaptation might be the key. The streaming service is adapting the horror book The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock. They’re pretty invested in the project, given the A-listers they’ve gotten signed up for the film.
Tom Holland, Chris Evan, Bill Skarsgard, Robert Pattinson, Mia Wasikowska, Gabriel Ebert, and Eliza Scanlen have all been announced as part of the cast. It’s a pretty intense list of names, especially given that several of these actors have been in high-paying blockbusters. So this has to be a very enticing project, right?
Here’s the synopsis provided by Variety:
The story is based on Donald Ray Pollock’s novel and is set in a place called Knockemstiff, Ohio, a forgotten backwoods where a storm of faith, violence and redemption brews. Out of desperation to save his dying wife, Willard Russell turns to prayer which succumbs to sacrifice. This sets our protagonist Arvin, Willard’s son, on his path from bullied kid to a man who knows when to take action.
There’s no word yet as to who Skarsgard and Scanlen are playing the film. We do know that Patterson is the preacher Roy Lafferty, Wasikowska is one half of the serial-killing couple as Sandy Henderson, Tom Holland is a trouble young man named Arvin, and eternal-lawful-good Chris Evans plays the sheriff.
The film is being directed by indie up-and-comer Antonio Campos, who is also writing it alongside Paulo Campos (likely some relation but I couldn’t verify). Filming is set to begin next month.
There’s no telling whether or not if this film will get as big as Netflix’s other smash hits, but it does look like a lot of people have faith in it. Only time will tell, though we don’t have any estimate as to when exactly that will be.
