‘Cape Fear’ TV Show in the Works, Javier Bardem to Star

Following his role in Netflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, Javier Bardem is jumping streaming services to star in a new Cape Fear TV series. The 10-episode series adaptation was greenlit by Apple TV+ Monday, with Bardem set to star and executive produce alongside Oscar winners Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg. Nick Antosca will serve as writer, executive producer, and showrunner.

Based on both John D. MacDonald’s novel The Executioners, which inspired Gregory Peck’s 1962 Universal Pictures feature Cape Fear, as well as the Scorsese-directed and Spielberg-produced 1991 remake, which starred Robert De Niro and Nick Nolte, Cape Fear is described as “a tense, Hitchcockian thriller and an examination of America’s obsession with true crime in the 21st century.” Per the official logline, “A storm is coming for happily married attorneys Amanda and Steve Bowden when Max Cady (Bardem), a notorious killer from their past, gets out of prison.”

The series order comes a year after a Cape Fear show was first said to be in the works. At the time, Deadline reported that Spielberg and Scorsese were attached to the project along with Antosca, the showrunner behind projects like Channel Zero, The Act, and Brand New Cherry Flavor. A bidding war for the adaptation was said to be “in early stages.”

The upcoming series will make the third iteration of MacDonald’s 1957 novel, and Spielberg and Scorsese’s first-ever project together. MacDonald’s psychological thriller-suspense novel was first adapted for the screen in the 1962 Universal Pictures flick Cape Fear, which starred Gregory Peck as Sam Bowden and Robert Mitchum as ex-con named Max Cady. The film was followed nearly three decades later by the acclaimed 1991 remake starring De Niro, Nolte, Jessica Lange, Joe Don Baker, and Juliette Lewis. Spielberg was originally attached to direct the movie, but ultimately passed the project on to Scorsese so he could make Schindler’s List, though he remained attached to the movie as a producer through his company Amblin Entertainment.

The upcoming Apple TV+ adaption will be executive produced by Antosca under his Eat the Cat banner along with Alex Hedlund. Spielberg, Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey will executive produce for Amblin Television. UCP will produce. Bardem, who cane next be seen in Apple Original Films’ F1, which is set to premiere in theaters globally on June 27, 2025, will executive produce and also star. Further cast announcements haven’t been made at this time. A premiere date window hasn’t been announced.