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WIRE Buzz: The Third Day moves to fall; R.L. Stine live tweets horror story; and more

By Josh Weiss Apr 3, 2020, 12:53 PM ET

Credit: Ludovic Robert/HBO

The Third Day, HBO's six-part miniseries about a strange island, has vacated its May 11 premiere date. It will now premiere this fall, the network announced today.

Created by Dennis Kelly and Felix Barrett, the Wicker Man-ish project consists of two parts. The first three episodes focus on Sam (Jude Law), a man who starts to slowly go insane while visiting a town off the coast of Britain. The latter three episodes shift the focus onto Helen (Naomie Harris), a determined outsider who comes to the same town looking for answers.

Allow this new teaser to tide you over a little:

"I wanted to make a series that was unsettling and disturbing but that also spoke to fears that ran deeper than horror. The themes of the Third Day have long been obsessions of mine -- it is about loss and hope and how both of those things can distort the mind in surprising and brutal ways," Kelly said in January.

HBO most likely pushed off the miniseries due to the fact that The Third Day was planned as an immersive experience, complete with a live-staged event. With the coronavirus pandemic currently forbidding large social gatherings of any kind, that's obviously not feasible right now.

No specific premiere date in the fall has been chosen yet.

R.L. Stine knows just how to entertain us in quarantine. Using the power of Twitter, the famed YA author penned a 14-part horror story that ends with one of his patented twists.

Titled "Cats in the Window," the tale is about an unnamed narrator and his friend Jake as they're visited by an increasing number of cats each night. The felines seem to want the two characters to follow them out of the window and one evening, Jake does just that ... never to be seen again.

Read the full thing below and try not to get goosebumps (pun very much intended):

I was excited when my friend Jake came to stay at our house for a week. Jake was a funny kid, and we always had fun together. (1)
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020

Jake had a face that made you want to laugh. For one thing, he had one blue eye and one brown eye. Weird? He had freckles around his nose. And one strand of blond hair that stood straight up on his head. (2)
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020

It was school break, so Jake and I had fun all day playing in the woods behind my house. At night, we slept side by side in the twin beds that faced my bedroom window. Except we didnât sleep much. (3)
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020

We stayed up most of the night laughing and talking. I liked to watch the moon float by my bedroom window. Late one night, a shadow appeared in the window. We both sat up and stared. A black cat. (4)
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020

The cat had green eyes that appeared to glow in the moonlight. It was a hot summer night, so the window was open. Jake and I both gasped as the cat jumped through the window and landed on my bed. (5)
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020

The cat pawed my arm and motioned with its head to the window. Jake laughed. âI think he wants you to go outside with him.â The cat meowed again. His green eyes glowed. He pawed Jake and motioned to the window. (6)
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020

âWhatâs going on in here?â My mom burst into the room. The black cat leaped out the window before she could see him. âWe had a visitor,â I said. âA black cat jumped onto my bed.â âYou were dreaming,â Mom said. (7)
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020

The next night, two black cats came into the room. They pawed us and pushed us with their heads toward the window. We picked them up and set them outside. I wanted to shut the window, but it was too hot. (8)
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020

Six cats came into the room the next night. They all jumped onto Jakeâs bed. They meowed and clawed at Jake. They huddled behind him and pushed him toward the open window. (9)
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020

âIâm going with them,â Jake said. âI want to see why they want us to come with them.â I tried to stop him. But he went with them. They circled him and guided him out the window. âJakeâcome back!â I cried. (10)
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020

We never saw Jake again. His parents never found him. The police couldn't find him. It was sad and horrible. I missed him so much. At night I watched for the black cats to return. But they never did. (11)
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020

Then the next summer, on a hot steamy night, a strange cat appeared. It jumped through the window onto my bed. The cat meowed at me. I gazed at it in shock. The cat looked so familiar to me. (12)
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020

I could barely breathe. The cat stared at me with one blue eye and one brown eye. It had freckles around its nose. And a thick strand of blond hair standing straight up on its head. (13)
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020

It kept pawing me, motioning its head to the window. âWhatâs that? You want me to come with you?â I whispered. It meowed. I climbed out of bed and stood at the window. I grabbed the windowsill and leaned out into the night. I tried to decide: Should I go? THE END. (14)
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020

Hope you enjoyed the story, everyone. I guess you can tell I'm not a cat person. Back soon. Stay scary--and stay well.
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) April 1, 2020

The end of civilization never looked so fun in the new trailer for Season 2 of Netflix's The Last Kids on Earth. Adapting the second book in Max Brallier's series (The Last Kids on Earth and the Zombie Parade), the upcoming episodes features an all-star voice cast of Mark Hamill, Rosario Dawson, Catherine O’Hara, Bruce Campbell, Keith David, and Nick Wolfhard.

Watch the trailer now:

Created and produced by Brallier, the animated series from Atomic Cartoons follows a group of suburban middle-schoolers living out the apocalypse from the comfort of their decked-out tree house. Scott Peterson serves as showrunner and producer.

Season 2 premieres on Netflix next Friday, April 17.