Move over Robert De Niro, a new version of Angel Heart is coming to our screens. Deadline reports that A24 and HBO are partnering for a new series adaptation of the cult classic, with Zac Efron set to star and executive produce.
Based on William Hjortsberg’s 1978 novel Falling Angel and its sequel Angel’s Inferno, Efron will produce Angel Heart alongside Black Rabbit creator Zach Baylin, who serves as writer on the series, and Shōgun’s Jonathan van Tulleken will also produce as well as direct numerous episodes. No other casting has been announced, but the show’s synopsis is as follows:
The series will follow a down-and-out NYC paparazzi, who makes his living finding and photographing people who don’t want to be found, who is hired by a mysterious man to find a missing woman. But the deeper he digs to find her, the more it looks like a group of powerful elites, and maybe something supernatural, are covering up the disappearance.
Angel Heart is also executive produced by Kate Susman, Marc Toberoff, Max Hjortsberg, Lorca Hjortsberg, Alice P. Neuhauser, Joe Hipps for Cut To, Stuart Manashil, Kevin Turen, and Harrison Kreiss. The new series is Efron’s third collaboration with A24, after starring in their wrestling biopic The Iron Claw and signing on for Famous, a new thriller film based on Blake Crouch’s novel.
The series serves as the second adaptation of Hjortsberg’s novel, after the 1987 psychological horror film of the same name, which starred Robert De Niro, Mickey Rourke, and Lisa Bonet, and went on to become a cult favorite. (It’s worth noting that, two years prior, Hjortsberg also wrote the screenplay for the Tom Cruise fantasy vehicle Legend — whether that influenced the making of Angel Heart, we can’t say, but what a resume!)
No release date has been set for Angel Heart. Stay tuned to FANGORIA for more updates.
