Casey Likes and E’myri Crutchfield to Star in Halloween Horror Film ‘Dark Harvest’
MGM has found its lead actors for director David Slade’s upcoming feature film adaptation of Norman Partridge’s Halloween horror novel Dark Harvest, and new release date has been confirmed for 2022.
Casey Likes (The Birch) and E’myri Crutchfield (Fargo) will star in the film, as first reported by Deadline.
The project has been in development at MGM for years, and right after we reported it would film in Canada this summer, it was announced last week that Amazon is buying MGM for $8.45 billion. Now it looks like Dark Harvest will be one of the first productions from the new Amazon-owned MGM.
Originally scheduled to arrive in theaters in September of 2021, MGM has now set the film to be released one year later, on September 9, 2022, through MGM’s joint distribution company, United Artists Releasing.
It was announced in early 2020 that the film adaptation had found a home at MGM. Understandably delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film is now currently scheduled to shoot between Aug. 16 and Oct. 4 in Manitoba, Canada, according to recent report from Winnipeg Free Press.
David Slade (30 Days of Night, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch) will direct the movie adaptation of Norman Partridge’s 2006 novel from a script by Michael Gilio, who co-wrote Paramount’s forthcoming Dungeons & Dragons film. Matt Tolmach and David Manpearl are producers through Matt Tolmach Productions, which is currently hot off the success of the last two Jumanji movies and Venom, which combined have grossed over $2.6 billion.
The book is set during Halloween of 1963 in a small Midwestern town where teenage boys eagerly square off with the butcher knife wielding October Boy, aka Ol’ Hacksaw Face aka Sawtooth Jack. Both the hunter and the hunted, the October Boy is the prize in an annual rite of life and death. One teen, Pete McCormick, knows that killing the October Boy is his one chance to escape a dead-end future in the one-horse town. But before the night is over, Pete will look into the saw-toothed face of horror – and discover the terrifying true secret of the October Boy.
An updated synopsis of the film says, every fall in a small Midwestern town, a supernatural specter rises from the cornfields and makes its way toward the town’s Church, where violent gangs of teenage boys hungrily await their chance to confront the legendary nightmare in an annual harvest rite of life and death. Richie Shepard lives in the shadow of his big brother who won last year’s Run and earned his ticket out of town. To prove himself and join his brother, Richie pairs up with Kelly Haines, a restless dreamer who will do whatever it takes to escape this dead-end town. Against the rules and the odds, Richie and Kelly decide to hunt down the legendary nightmare to win the Run and their freedom, together.
Likes will play Richie and Crutchfield will play Kelly. Likes will soon portray Kiss legend Gene Simmons in the upcoming Neil Bogart biopic Spinning Gold, and he’s set to star in the Broadway musical adaptation of Almost Famous, while Crutchfield joined the critically acclaimed FX series Fargo in its fourth season and can currently be seen in the Amazon Prime series Tell Me Your Secrets.
We will continue to follow this project closely as it develops. Look for additional casting news soon.
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