Hulu has released a new teaser trailer for its original star-studded horror anthologyMonsterland. The series, which is officially synopsized as “encounters with… strange beasts drivebroken people to desperate acts,” will air eight episodes, each of which is set in a different American city.
Particular episodes include “Iron River, MI,” where Kelly Marie Tran(Star Wars: The Last Jedi)plays a woman who has returned to her small hometown for her wedding, but runs into the unsolved mystery of her best friend’s disappearance, and “Newark, New Jersey,” with Mike Coulter (Luke Cage) as a father who’s unable to move onafter his daughter goes missing. The first episode, “Port Fourchon, LA,” stars Kaitlyn Dever(Booksmart) as a single mother stuck in a small town, who meets a mysterious stranger (Jonathan Tucker,Westworld) that might give her a chance to change her circumstances.
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Monsterlandalso featuresNicole Beharie (Black Mirror,Sleepy Hollow),Taylor Schilling(Orange is the New Black), Adepero Oduye (12 Years a Slave), Roberta Colindrez (Fun Home), Charlie Tahan(Ozark), and Hamish Linklater(The New Adventures of Old Christine).
Monsterlandwas created for Annapurna Television by Mary Laws, producer and writer on AMC’sPreacher, and author of the original screenplay for Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2016permanent mindscrewThe Neon Demon. Laws is listed as an executive producer onMonsterland, as well as writing four of its eight episodes. The entirety ofMonsterlandwas filmed in Kingston, New York, in November of 2019.
The show is based onNorth American Lake Monsters, a 2013 collection by American writer Nathan Ballingrud. One of the stories, “The Monsters of Heaven,” won 2007’s Shirley Jackson Award for Best Short Story. Another work by Ballingrud, the 2013 novellaThe Visible Filth, became the basis for the 2019 horror filmWounds, starring Armie Hammer, Dakota Johnson, and Zazie Beetz. Ballingrud’s most recent release isWounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell,a 2019 collection that includesThe Visible Filth.
Wounds' writer/director, Babak Anvari, and producer, Lucan Toh, are also executive producers onMonsterland,alongsideAnnapurna founder Megan Ellison(Zero Dark Thirty, Phantom Thread), and Sue Naegle, former president of HBO Entertainment.
This is Annapurna’s second major television production in 2020, after David Simon’sThe Plot Against Americafor HBO in March. Its next major release, besidesMonsterland, is the comedy-drama feature filmKajillionaire,starring Evan Rachel Wood, Debra Winger, and Gina Rodriguez. Following strong reviews at Sundance in January,Kajillionairewill(inexplicably) release in theaterson September 25thand on video-on-demand services on October 16th.
All eight episodes ofMonsterlandare scheduled to premiere exclusively on Hulu on October 2nd.
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