brownstein: cape fear series finale to jolt fantasia viewers at première

it’s the gift that has kept on giving nightmares to viewers for over six decades. and it’s the gift that has kept on giving work to filmmakers and actors over the same period.the latest iteration of cape fear is a 10-part series streaming on apple. the first nine episodes have already been made available, but the 10th will have its world première thursday at cinéma du musée as part of the 30th fantasia international film festival, before becoming available to apple subscribers on friday. the screening, beginning at 9 p.m., will be packaged with the previously released ninth episode.to mark the occasion, series creator/showrunner/executive producer nick antosca and star patrick wilson will be on hand for a q&a following the cinéma du musée screening.presenting the finale première of an american streaming series is a first for fantasia. in fact, few film festivals opt to showcase productions not originally made for the big screen. purists still tend to pooh-pooh the inclusion of tv or streaming series within the confines of a cinema festival, but the reality is that the line between tv and film has become increasingly blurred.fantasia artistic director mitch davis feels that cape fear meets the necessary criteria for the fest.“apple approached this series as if it were a 10-hour movie. it’s shot very, very cinematically with a phenomenal cast — like a lot of episodic limited series are now. it’s very bold and grandiose in its storytelling and doesn’t play like a pandering tv show. so it does really make sense to play it as a big-screen experience that can be a shared moment with a packed audience,” says davis, noting that last year’s fantasia screened a japanese streaming series.“we wouldn’t just show any kind of tv series. it really has to have an angle, like the first one we did last year, which came from a japanese filmmaker whose work we had presented in the past.”

one can’t imagine author john d. macdonald would have ever dreamed that his 1957 novel the executioners would have spawned two films, in 1962 and 1991, and this streaming series — although it’s a good bet that heirs to his estate are most ecstatic.while some liberties with the original story have been taken along the way, the premise for the various productions has remained pretty much the same, with earnest attorney sam bowden, along with his family and friends, being stalked by unhinged sociopath max cady, who seeks to exact revenge for the lawyer’s role in having convicted him.some of hollywood’s heaviest hitters played the leads in the two films: gregory peck was cast as bowden and robert mitchum as cady in the 1962 rendering directed by j. lee thompson; and nick nolte did bowden with robert de niro as cady in the eerie 1991 retelling directed by martin scorsese.scorsese, steven spielberg and antosca serve as executive producers on the apple series, while wilson slips into the sneakers of bowden (now renamed tom), terrorized by the ever-twisted cady as interpreted by javier bardem — who scares the bejesus out of viewers like few screen villains can.antosca wasn’t born when the first cape fear film was released and was but eight when the scorsese version came out in 1991. so what possessed him to take a stab at this now?“i saw the cape fear films much too young,” antosca says in an interview at the ritz-carlton hotel on thursday in advance of the evening screening. “i was very disturbed, and being disturbed makes me fall in love sometimes. i was rewatching the movies a few years ago and was once again struck by how visceral and tense they were. i also loved how scorsese did something so different with his version. each film had the elemental nightmare, but they reflected their times in very different ways. so i became very interested in what a cape fear would look like today.”antosca has become something of a horror wunderkind, having taken on such projects as channel zero, the act and brand new cherry flavor.but wilson hails from a musical theatre background, having nabbed tony nominations for the full monty and oklahoma!, although he did earn an emmy nod for the dramatic tv series angels in america, based on the 1991 pulitzer prize-winning play. but now his lawyer character must confront a monster of epic proportions in bardem's cady.“at this point, i think i’ve done just about every genre and worked with a lot of people,” wilson says. “i’ve been a big fan of (bardem) and it was a joy to work with him here. but i was never able to sit back and marvel at his performance, because i was in there with him.“i don’t scare easily. so i don’t find him scary. what i love about him is his vulnerability. he’s a very open, joyful, charismatic person. that charm plays so beautifully against his sinister ways.”adds antosca: “who are you going to get to step into the shoes of robert mitchum and robert de niro playing one of the most iconic villains in screen history? it’s a short list, and it kind of begins and ends with javier bardem.”while many actors might find it intimidating taking on a role so powerfully played by peck and nolte, not so for wilson, who turns on the emotional jets here. “i never felt that i was trying to live up to the nolte or peck characters, because we’re such different actors.”antosca isn’t exactly shaking the horror genre in his next major project, producing and writing the screenplay for verity, starring anne hathaway and opening in theatres oct. 2.“it’s kind of a romance,” he chuckles. “it’s a juicy, sexy thriller.”but what about its body count?“it depends on how you define that term,” he offers with a most mischievous smile. “the young people use that term differently.”best brace yourselves. again.bbrownstein@postmedia.com