Ethan Hawke is bringing a new kind of terror to listeners with Midnight Radio, a supernatural horror podcast that reunites him with the creative team behind Sinister and The Black Phone. The nine-episode scripted series will premiere October 22 through iHeartPodcasts, with new episodes arriving every Thursday.
Hawke stars as the host of a conspiracy-themed late-night AM radio show whose broadcast takes a disturbing turn when he receives a mysterious call from a man claiming to have been part of a secret U.S. space mission that was erased from history. As the story unfolds in real time, the radio host finds himself caught up in a sprawling web of government cover-ups, interdimensional breaches, and psychological warfare.
The official logline for Midnight Radio reads: As the broadcast unfolds, strange signals hidden in the radio static reveal themselves. With each episode building on the last, one question grows more urgent — who, or what, is really on the other end of the line? And what do they want?
The project brings Hawke back together with filmmaker Scott Derrickson and screenwriter C. Robert Cargill, the creative partners behind the horror films Sinister, The Black Phone, and Black Phone 2. Hawke starred in all three of those films.
The voice cast also includes Noah Centineo, Willa Fitzgerald, Vincent D’Onofrio, Levon Hawke, Austin Pendleton, and Hubert Point-Du Jour.
Midnight Radio Reunites Ethan Hawke With the Team Behind Sinister and The Black Phone
The podcast is designed to make the most of audio storytelling, using the intimacy of a late-night radio broadcast to build an unsettling supernatural mystery. Hawke made it clear to Variety that he is enthusiastic about the format:
“None of us had made a podcast before, so it was a blast to pour ourselves completely into a venture where we had total creative freedom. There’s an intimacy to the audio-only medium that can be really powerful, and in our case, used to a terrifying effect. Of course, it requires great writing… Fortunately, Scott Derrickson and Cargill are two of the best writers I’ve ever worked with.”
Derrickson and Cargill created and co-wrote Midnight Radio, which they developed alongside Hawke with the freedom to pursue an original story outside the usual constraints of film and television production. The team independently co-financed the project before partnering with iHeartPodcasts to bring it to a wider audience.
Derrickson told Variety,
“Midnight Radio is a labor of love, and an act of unfettered creativity. Ethan, Cargill and I decided to make this without any financial backing. Our aim was to make an eerie, complex and increasingly compelling narrative podcast with zero creative restrictions. Midnight Radio has a purity to it — it’s exactly what we wanted it to be. And now we’re excited to be working with iHeart to bring it to listeners everywhere.”
When Does Midnight Radio Premiere?
The first episode of Midnight Radio will be released on October 22, with the series available through the iHeartRadio app and all major podcast platforms. New episodes will arrive every Thursday at 12 a.m. PT / 3 a.m. ET.
The nine-episode series is produced by Under The Influence Productions, founded by Ethan Hawke and his wife, Ryan Hawke, in collaboration with Derrickson and Cargill’s Crooked Highway, Mickey Schiff, and iHeartPodcasts. Jimmy Bie leads for Under The Influence Productions, while Vince Cheng, president of production for Crooked Highway, is overseeing the release.
Will you be tuning in to Midnight Radio when it premieres on October 22? Let us know in the comments below!
Source: JoBlo
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