Sinister and The Black Phone‘s Ethan Hawke has found his next horror project in Midnight Radio, a brand new scripted podcast headed our way just in time for Halloween.
Created and co-written by frequent Hawke collaborators Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill, Midnight Radio‘s ensemble cast also includes Noah Centineo, Willa Fitzgerald, Vincent D’Onofrio, Levon Hawke, Austin Pendleton and Hubert Point-Du Jour.
Per Variety, who reported on the story earlier today, the nine-episode Midnight Radio sees Hawke star as the host of a conspiracy-themed late-night AM radio show who one night receives a mysterious call from a man claiming to be part of a secret U.S. space mission lost to history. Unfolding in real time, Hawke’s radio host quickly finds himself tied up in a conspiratorial plot involving a “sprawling web of government cover-ups, interdimensional breaches and psychological warfare”:
“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?”
Hawke's Under The Influence Productions produces, as well as Crooked Highway and Mickey Schiff in collaboration with iHeartPodcasts.
Here's what Hawke has to say of exploring a new medium in a statement:
“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 adds:
“‘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.”
Anyone who's ever watched a Derrickson/Cargill project will know that the creative pair have an ear for terrifying aural scares (remember that “Hamburger Lady” needle drop in Dreamkill? I sure do, especially when I'm trying to sleep), so expect Midnight Radio to deliver.
The first episode of Midnight Radio will be released Oct. 22, available on the iHeartRadio app and all major podcast platforms. New episodes will be released every succeeding Thursday at 12 a.m. PT / 3 a.m. ET. For more on Midnight Radio, make sure to grab the latest issue of FANGORIA, now in stores and online, to read an exclusive conversation between Cargill, Derrickson and Hawke.
