After Poltergeist and The Quiet Ones, Jared Harris knows a thing or two about horror. And now he's embracing the genre on the small screen too, signing on alongside Ciaran Hinds, Paul Ready, Adam Nagaitis and Tobias Menzies for The Terror.
David Kajganich wrote the first script, which adapts Dan Simmons' 2007 novel. Kajganich and Soo Hugh will run the show, which is planning an initial 10-episode series, with the anthology element then channelling the current trend for different stories each season.
Loosely based on real events, The Terror is set in 1847, as a Royal Naval expedition crew is in the middle of pushing through the Northwest Passage. What they discover instead is a mysterious, lethal predator that stalks the shop and its crew, and they must battle to survive its attacks.
Harris is playing Captain Francis Crozier, an Irishman sick of the pomp and politics of Navy life. Hinds is set as Sir John Franklin, Ready will be Henry Goodsir and Nagaitis is Cornelius Hickey. Then there's Menzies, playing the monster... Okay, he's actually Naval officer James Fitzjames, but given his recent run of villainous roles, can you blame us for suspecting him? The series (named for the ship it is set on) will be on screens next year. US channel AMC (home to The Walking Dead) is behind this one, and it will air on AMC UK (via BT TV) within minutes of the US broadcast.