It’s been over a decade since Let The Right One In and its largely identical American remake with a slightly different title, but the timeless tale of a little boy befriending the spooky girl next door who happens to be—spoiler alert—a vampire has stuck with American TV and film studios like a tooth in the neck. TNT tried to make a TV version of Let The Right One In years ago, with Teen Wolf’s Jeff Davis running things, but it didn’t make it past the pilot stage. Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Showtime has also ordered a pilot for a Let The Right One In TV show of its own, this time with Penny Dreadful’s Andrew Hinderaker writing and Homeland’s Seith Mann directing.
THR says Showtime’s version will star Demián Bichir (of The Midnight Sky and The Nun), despite the fact that he’s not a lonely little boy or a little girl who—spoiler alert—is actually a vampire. Of course, there are some adults in the original book and movies, so Bichir is probably going to play one of them (smart money is on the detective who suspects that the murderous little girl is actually a vampire), but the two main kids are the real stars of the story, so it’ll be more interesting to see who plays them.
It’ll also be interesting to see how a protracted version of this story works without being able to rely on the original’s steadily escalating stakes (pun intended, sure) or its unnervingly sweet and tragic ending. Assuming, naturally, that the show doesn’t do something wild and drop that ending in earlier than expected, which would actually be a clever way to separate this from the other versions of the story. Just a thought, Showtime! You do what you think is best!