Entertainment Extra

2 ENTERTAINMENT EXTRA By Rachel Jones TV Media I f the novel "Lovecraft Country" drove you to the edge of your imagination, you'll be thrilled to experience it visually, too, as a new series based on the Matt Ruff novel debuts Sunday, Aug. 16, on HBO. This chilling show is set in 1950s America and stars Jonathan Majors ("Da 5 Bloods," 2020) as Atticus Black, who journeys with a friend and his uncle to search for his missing father. All the while, he must struggle to sur- vive the terrifyingly racist indi- viduals he meets along the way, not to mention a hell beast from another dimension. The horror drama features Courtney B. Vance ("American Crime Story") as Uncle George Black and Michael Kenneth Williams ("Critical Thinking," 2020) as Atticus' long-lost father. Jurnee Smollett ("Birds of Prey," 2020) co-stars as Letitia Lewis, and Wunmi Mosaku ("Temple"), Jamie Harris ("Lost Transmissions," 2019), Abbey Lee ("The Neon Demon," 2016), Jamie Chung ("Dangerous Lies," 2020), Jordan Patrick Smith ("Vikings") and Aunjanue Ellis ("The Subject," 2020) also appear. Atticus is a man who longs to see his absent father once more, but he's also a Korean war veteran who always carries a pulp novel in his pocket and makes a point of filling his heart with love, despite the many injustices facing people of color in the 1950s. His father, however, is the exact opposite: secretive, mule-headed and brutally pragmatic. The balance of their relationship is fraught and fascinating. Uncle George is a warm and funny bookworm, and he has been an important father figure in Atticus' life. As the publisher of the "Safe Negro Travel Guide," George is instrumental in helping Atticus understand the importance of home and is also the one who introduces him to pulp novels. Letitia Lewis, meanwhile, is a hustler and an artist who uses her work to promote civil rights. She's returning home as the series opens. Her half-sister Ruby (Mosaku) is also a hustler, but she's much less successful, and their family loyalty is put to the test as Ruby receives an offer that is too irresistible to decline. There are so many layered and compelling characters in "Lovecraft Country" that you'll find it hard to wait between episodes. Hippolyta Freeman (Ellis) is a housewife who has led a boring life thus far but has some serious adventure planned out for herself. Her efforts to go down these unex- plored paths will take her to great heights — literally. Elsewhere, Eustice Hunt (Harris) is a county sheriff with tons of NAACP complaints against him. He, of course, finds an enemy in Atticus. "Lovecraft Country," the novel, was first published in 2016 by Harper Collins. Publishers were impressed with Ruff, the author of the book, who they said had an uncanny grip on traditional horror themes and an ability to use those motifs to underscore the bigotry and hatred that are the most traumatic features of the story. Critics have described the work as "a series of bizarre chi- merical adventures" and a "merrily macabre pastiche," and the novel is often lavished with the same awe and respect as the author's earlier works. The novel's characters have been described as noble and resilient spirits. Like its televi- sion adaptation, the novel interlocks racial issues and fright, combining horror with hope and ambition, all with a touch of an alternate, transdi- mensional reality. HBO picked up the rights to "Lovecraft Country" in 2017, a year after the novel was pub- lished. Just a year later, princi- pal photography for the series started in Chicago, which was also where most of the filming took place, specifically at the Chicago Cinespace Film Studios and in White Pines State Park. The premiere episode, "Sundown," was helmed by French-Algerian director Yann Demange ("Top Boy"), the genius behind the successful TV series "Dead Set." Demange's directorial film debut was also a smash hit among critics, an inde- pendent movie entitled "'71," which premiered in 2014 and earned him the British Independent Film Award for Best Director. The second and third epi- sodes of "Lovecraft Country," "Whitey's on the Moon" and "Holy Ghost," were directed by Daniel Sackheim. The Emmy- winning director's list of impressive directorial and pro- duction credits include episodes of iconic series such as "Law & Order," "House," "NYPD Blue," "Game of Thrones," "The Walking Dead" and "The Americans." Most recently, his work on Netflix's "Ozark" gar- nered him an Emmy nomina- tion. YMCA 2 x 2" Pear Tree Gallery 3 x 2" On the Cover Jonathan Majors stars in "Lovecraft Country" HBO's newest drama mixes fictional horror with the reality of American racism D&J Liquors 3 x 2" American Legion Post 60 2 x 3" Thrifty Muffler 2 x 2.5"

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