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Disney+ orders 'Witch Mountain' pilot starring Bryce Dallas Howard
The show follows a pair of teenagers who develop paranormal abilities.
The Witch Mountain franchise is heading to the small screen with a pilot order at Disney+, the streamer announced today.
Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World) has been tapped to star in the upcoming show, which centers around a pair of teenagers — Tia (The Watcher's Isabel Gravitt) and Ben (Pan's Levi Miller) — "that develop strange abilities and discover their sleepy suburb may not be as idyllic as it seems," reads the official synopsis provided by Disney. If the TV show is anything like the movies, then these kids are definitely from outer space. In any case, Howard will play Tia's warmhearted mother, who lost her husband to mental illness.
While considered "perfect" by her classmates, Tia fears she may be starting to exhibit early signs of the schizophrenia that took her father's life, given the fact that she has the ability to hear other people's deepest secrets. Ben, on the other hand, is described as a troubled student on the verge of expulsion, who writes papers for his peers in order to make extra cash. He's inexplicably drawn to Tia after learning "a troubling discovery about himself."
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Bianca "b" Norwood (Let the Right One In) co-stars as Corey, Ben's best friend and fellow employee at the local diner. A social pariah with tattoos, they don't much mind that one more infraction will lead to academic expulsion. As the character description tells us, Bianca doesn't enjoy Ben trying to play their protector and puts "more care into looking like a My Chemical Romance song that became an anime fan."
Jackson Kelly (V/H/S/99) rounds out the initial round of casting as Peter, Tia's closest male friend, who has a massive crush on her. Tia, however, is unaware of his affections, but when she "expresses her concerns about the seemingly impossible happenings around them, she learns that Peter's observant, cautious nature might be an asset in figuring out the mystery around them."
The pilot hails from 12 Monkeys and Picard scribes, Travis Fickett and Terry Matalas, who serve as executive producers alongside John Fox and John Davis of Davis. Augustine Frizzell (Euphoria) will direct and executive produce the pilot.
The cinematic Witch Mountain property — which dates back to 1975 — currently spans five feature films, including a 1995 made-for-TV movie and a 2009 reboot starring Dwayne Johnson and AnnaSophia Robb. The '09 revamp, which spawned a viral internet meme, nabbed over $100 million at the global box office against a production budget of $50 million. Three of the movies (Escape to Witch Mountain, Return from Witch Mountain, and Race to Witch Mountain) are currently streaming on Disney+.
Want to see Bryce Dallas Howard in action mode? Jurassic World Dominion is now streaming on Peacock.
