Javier Bardem will return as a cult villain in an Apple TV+ series based on a book adapted by Martin Scorsese.
Apple TV+ is undoubtedly one of the best streaming platforms (if not the best) given the quality of its productions. Between the sublime uchronic science fiction series For All Mankind, the exciting dystopia Severancethe distressing investigation of Shining Girlsthe delusional whodunit The After Partythe incredible narrative game of Disclaimer or even the thrilling Silo, The Apple platform offered us series that were well above the rest.
Of course, they are not all original, being adapted from books (Disclaimer, Silo, Shining Girls, Pachinko…) or being outright remakes of films or series. This was particularly the case of Amazing Stories (reboot of the eponymous series from the 80s by Steven Spielberg), The Mosquito Coast (based on the eponymous book and the 80s film adaptation with Harrison Ford) or even Presumed innocent (taken from the eponymous book and the film with Harrison Ford, again). And precisely, Apple TV+ will launch the series version of a Martin Scorsese film which itself was a remake.
Live remake
Indeed, according to information from Deadline, Apple TV+ has indeed started work on the series Cape Fear (either Nerves on edge in French) showrun by Nick Antosca, the creator of the series The Actwhich had been in the works since November 2023. Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese will produce the series, the two having collaborated for Nerves on edge in 1991, remake of the eponymous film by J. Lee Thompson and itself adapted from the book A monster to slay by John D. MacDonald. A synopsis was revealed for the occasion:
“In this 10-episode series, described as a tense Hitchcockian thriller and an examination of America's obsession with crime stories in the 21st century, a storm brews for happily married lawyers Amanda and Steve Bowden when Max Cady, a notorious killer from their past, is released from prison. »
In the Apple TV+ series, the story will therefore be more or less the same, with one exception compared to the films and the book: both members of the couple targeted by Max Cady will be lawyers (only the husband was in the previous versions). If the green light was therefore made official in November 2024, it seems that the project is already well advanced since the new Max Cady has also been unveiled.
After Robert Mitchum and Robert De Niro, It is therefore Javier Bardem who will play the former inmate convicted of rape. Even if the actor has delivered slightly offbeat performances in recent years (between his fanatic Stilgar of Dune or his king Triton in The Little Mermaid), seeing him again in the skin of an antagonist is quite enticing, he who shone so much with this type of role as in mother!, Heavy rain or of course No Country For Old Men which earned him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
At this stage, we don't yet know who will play Amanda and Steve Bowden, but we can expect some top-notch casting. No other specific information has been revealed by Deadline nor a broadcast window (even if we can surely bet on the end of 2025-beginning of 2026).
By then, Martin Scorsese may have made his next film official after Killers of the Flower Moon (already produced by Apple TV+) and Javier Bardem will have appeared in F1 by Joseph Kosinski (also thanks to Apple) from June 25, 2025.
