Jared Harris, star of Mad Men and Netflix period drama The Crown, has climbed aboard AMC’s upcoming anthology series The Terror, one based on Dan Simmons’s best-selling novel of the same name.
Production on the network’s straight-to-series property is expected to get underway in Budapest come winter, when Ciaran Hinds, Utopia star Paul Ready and Adam Nagaitis will round out the preliminary cast.
Rooted in 1847, The Terror can be seen as an old-timey spin on your classic creature feature, thrusting a Royal Naval expedition crew into peril as they plot course for the Northwest Passage. On their journey, a mysterious predator slithers on board, stalking everyone on the ship and picking off crew members one by one. Imagine The Thing, only here we find our band of heroes isolated on the high seas as opposed to the bitter-cold plains of Antarctic.
Confronting that monster head on is Jared Harris, who takes point as Francis Crozier, Captain of the HMS Terror and second in command of the expedition. AMC’s newfound series will span ten one-hour episodes when it bows in 2017. The only question now is, will you book a ticket for the HMS Terror?
“The story of man’s battle with nature and an unknown predator makes ‘The Terror’ a gripping and imaginative series, and calls for a special kind of actor,” said Joel Stillerman, president of original programming and development for AMC and SundanceTV.
AMC will unleash The Terror at some point in 2017. Jared Harris, on the other hand, has also lined up another tantalizing small-screen project entitled The Crown, which has set up shop at Netflix ahead of its premiere on November 4.