Published in 2019, Stephen Kings novel The Institute is being adapted as a television series by MGM+, Deadline reports the latest casting news this afternoon.
Simone Miller (Run through the suburbs) And Jason Diaz (Vampire Academy) have joined a cast that includes Ben Barnes (Shadows and Bones) And Mary Louise Parker (weed).
Today’s report from Deadline states: “Miller plays Kalisha, a sarcastic but kind inmate at the institute who becomes one of Luke’s closest allies. Diaz plays Tony, the institute’s most sadistic orderly, who takes pleasure in exercising his power over the children.”
The Institute comes from the director/executive producer Jack Bender (Lost, Mr. Mercedes), screenwriter and executive producer Benjamin Cavell (Justified, The Stand) and MGM+ Studios.
In the eight-part series “When 12-year-old genius Luke Ellis is kidnapped, he awakens in the Institute, a facility filled with children who all got there the same way he did, and all with unusual abilities. In a nearby town, tormented former cop Tim Jamieson (Barnes) is looking for a new life, but the peace and quiet won’t last long, for his story and Luke’s are bound to intersect.” The website notes that Parker “will play Ms. Sigsby, the Institute’s charming but strong-willed director and a staunch believer in its terrifying mission.”
Here is the full synopsis of the novel via Amazon:
As psychologically terrifying as fire starter, and with the spectacular Kid Power of It, The Institute is Stephen King’s heartbreakingly dramatic story of good versus evil in a world where the good guys don’t always win.
In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, burglars silently murder Luke Ellis’ parents and load him into a black SUV. The operation takes less than two minutes. Luke wakes up in the Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except it has no window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other children with special gifts – telekinesis and telepathy – who got here the same way Luke did: Kalisha, Nick, George, Iris, and ten-year-old Avery Dixon. They’re all in the front section. Others, Luke learns, have moved to the back section, “like the Cockroach Motel,” Kalisha says. “You check in, but you don’t check out.”
In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are relentless in their efforts to extract the power of their supernatural gifts from the children. There are no scruples here. Those who cooperate get coins for the machines. Those who don’t cooperate are brutally punished. With each new victim who disappears into the back half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the institution.
