Recent News
Massive Nightmares and Dreamscapes Update
By Dave Dreher
Mar 14, 2006, 07:34

I first told you about the Nightmare and Dreamscapes TV show as it was ramping up for production, today brings a massive update including some pics from the episodes.  The great Stephen King resource Lilja’s Library first posted the pics yesterday and you can check out a few of them at the bottom of this article.

The official site for the series has also gone live and they have a wealth of info to sift through.  Here is some of what they have posted:

Turner Network Television (TNT), which scored big last year with the adaptation of Stephen King's Salem's Lot, is scaring up a top notch cast for its latest venture into King territory, NIGHTMARES & DREAMSCAPES: FROM THE STORIES OF STEPHEN KING. This anthology series of eight one-hour episodes adapted from King's short stories will feature such notable performers as Emmy winner and Oscar® nominee William H. Macy(Fargo, TNT's Door to Door and The Wool Cap) and Jacqueline McKenzie (The 4400, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood), who star in Umney's Last Case; Emmy winner Kim Delaney (NYPD Blue, CSI: Miami) and Steven Weber (The Shining, Wings), who star in You Know They Got a Hell of a Band; Samantha Mathis (TNT's The Mists of Avalon and Salem's Lot) and Jeremy Sisto (Six Feet Under, TNT's Julius Caesar), who headline The Fifth Quarter; Golden Globe nominee Ron Livingston (Band of Brothers, The Cooler) and Golden Globe nominee Henry Thomas (E. T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Legends of the Fall), who star in The End of the Whole Mess; Oscar® nominee Tom Berenger(Platoon, TNT's Into the West) and Oscar® nominee and Golden Globe winner Marsha Mason (The Goodbye Girl, Frasier), who star in The Road Virus Heads North; and Oscar® winner William Hurt (Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Village), who headlines Battleground. 

NIGHTMARES & DREAMSCAPES comes to TNT from Bill Haber's Ostar Enterprises, with Haber (The Uprising, Jack and the Bean Stalk: The Real Story, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow) serving as executive producer. The series is produced by Mike Robe, Jeffrey Hayes and John J. McMahon. It will premiere on TNT in summer 2006.

"It is a joy to be working with such incredible talent, many of whom we've worked with before, for this ambitious adaptation of Stephen King's short stories," said Michael Wright, senior vice president of original programming for TNT and TBS. "King's short stories are brilliant, and it's an honor to be able to bring them to life as a true television event."

The following are the stories that have been cast for production:

Umney's Last Case
Directed by Rob Bowman (Reign of Fire, Elektra) from a teleplay by April Smith (The Taking of Pelham One Two Three)
William H. Macy and Jacqueline McKenzie star in this story about a fictional private eye whose author decides he wants to take the place of his detective creation to escape from the tragedy of his own life.

You Know They Got a Hell of a Band
Directed by Mike Robe (News at Eleven, Guts and Glory: The Rise and Fall of Oliver North) who also wrote the teleplay.
Kim Delaney and Steven Weber star in this story of a young couple who happen upon a town in which all of the residents share a deadly secret while gearing up for the concert of a lifetime.

The End of the Whole Mess
Directed by Mikael Salomon (TNT's Salem's Lot) from a teleplay by Lawrence D. Cohen (Carrie, Stephen King's It)
An award-winning filmmaker, played by Ron Livingston, documents his final hour of life and tells the story of his brother's discovery of a chemical that ends all violence. When the brother, played by Henry Thomas, attempts to use the chemical on the world, however, the results are catastrophic.

The Fifth Quarter
Directed by Rob Bowman (Reign of Fire, Elektra) from a teleplay by Alan Sharp (Rob Roy, Reversible Errors)
Jeremy Sisto plays a recently released criminal who learns from his dying friend of a map torn into four parts. If put back together, the map will lead to the location of $1 million taken during a robbery. But finding it might not be as easy as it seems. Samantha Mathis co-stars.

The Road Virus Heads North
Directed by Sergio Mimica-Gezzan (TNT's Into The West, Invasion, Taken) from a teleplay by Peter Filardi (Salem's Lot, Flatliners)
Tom Berenger plays a prize-winning author on a road trip heading north. After stopping at a yard sale to buy a painting, he later realizes the painting, which shows a car traveling along a road, is slowly changing and may be controlling his fate. Marsha Mason co-stars as Aunt Trudy.

Battleground
Directed by Brian Henson (Farscape, Muppet Treasure Island) from a teleplay by Richard Christian Matheson (Mobius, It Waits)|
After murdering the owner of a toy company, a killer for hire played by William Hurt receives a package of toy soldiers in the mail, but these soldiers aren't just toying around.

Four of the adaptations that are being cast for NIGHTMARES & DREAMSCAPES come from King's 1993 anthology of the same name. The Road Virus Heads North comes from King's 2002 anthology Everything's Eventual, while Battleground comes from 1978's Nightshift.

To view the rest of pics, click here to head on over to Lilja’s Library.