Carrie is the reigning queen of Stephen King adaptations.
Fifty years after Sissy Spacek literally saw red at her high school prom, Mike Flanagan set his sights on a longform retelling of the prolific author’s debut novel surrounding a vengeful telekinetic teenager.
“Like all of Mike Flanagan’s adaptations, you have no idea what you’re in for,” Carrie star Kate Siegel teased in her exclusive chat with SYFY Wire. “It takes what you love, remixes it in a way that is exciting and pulls on your heartstrings.”
Flanagan has officially replaced Frank Darabont as Hollywood’s go-to King adapter, following big-screen editions of Doctor Sleep and The Life of Chuck—plus an upcoming revisit to the world of The Mist.
In adapting Carrie, he cast Summer H. Howell as the titular outcast, and it seems her take will stand apart from Spacek and Chloë Grace Moretz’s performances from 1976 and 2013, respectively.
“Summer’s Carrie White is brand new in more ways than one,” Siegel shared. “It’s going to be the beating heart that pulls you through this series. Every viewer will become obsessed with Summer Howell after this show.”
Siegel is more than qualified to say as much, seeing as she not only stars in a yet-to-be-revealed role but also stepped behind the camera to direct one of the season’s eight episodes. “It is an incredible project,” she added. “I can’t wait for people to see it.”
Off the set, the husband and wife collaborators are also diehard fans of Mark Duplass’ Creep franchise, with Flanagan even vying for a role on Shudder’s The Creep Tapes series.
Alas, when he received an email to discuss casting for season three, it was to inquire about a phone number for Siegel, whom Duplass and co-creator Patrick Brice wanted to tap as one of the titular Creep’s latest targets.
“This has literally never happened. It’s normally people emailing me trying to get to Mike,” she recalled. “Mark calls me up and he’s like, ‘Hey, I have a really weird idea.’ Immediately, I was like ‘I’m in.’”
Season three of The Creep Tapes drops Sept. 15 on Shudder and AMC+. Then, all eight episodes of Carrie premiere Oct. 7 on Prime Video.
