Peacock has officially announced the development of a television series based on Fear, a 1996 film starring Reese Witherspoon and Mark Wahlberg. Developed by Jessica Goldberg under Universal Television, the upcoming series is set to provide audiences with a new twist on the classic film.
Released in April 1996, Fear tells the story of sixteen-year-old Nicole Walker (Reese Witherspoon), who lives in the suburbs of Seattle with her dad, Steve (William Petersen), Steve’s new wife Laura (Amy Brenneman), and Laura’s son Toby (Christopher Gray). While at a bar with her friends, Nicole meets David McCall (Mark Wahlberg) and instantly falls in love with him – the two begin a whirlwind romance, but David quickly becomes incredibly possessive of Nicole, vandalizing Steve’s car and attacking Nicole’s friend Gary (Todd Caldecott) when he sees them together.
After David’s behavior escalates to the point of killing Gary and assaulting Nicole’s friend Margo (Alyssa Milano), a desperate series of events takes place as David tries to take Nicole for himself, harming anyone who gets in his way, and Nicole tries her hardest to get away from David with her friends and family intact.
The New Adaptation of ‘Fear’ on Peacock
Variety describes Jessica Goldberg’s upcoming series adaptation of Fear as a “modern reinvention” of the film that circles around “two young lovers in a psychological game of cat and mouse – but who’s the cat and who’s the mouse?” It’s currently unclear what new directions the series will take and how it might differ from the film – or what elements might remain the same – but the series logline describes the story as being told from conflicting points of view as it wrestles with personal demons and reframes the “he said she said” story as “a twist-filled suspense story about toxic relationships.”
Series writer and executive producer Jessica Goldberg is likely best known for her work on Hulu’s The Path (2016), but some of Goldberg’s other works include Netflix’s Away (2020), a short-lived space-drama with Hilary Swank, as well as a long stint as a producer/supervising producer on the NBC series Parenthood (2010) which starred Peter Krause and Lauren Graham. Jessica Goldberg will reportedly produce the series adaptation of Fear for Peacock while working with Universal Television under a deal with UTV. Ron Howard, Lilly Burns, and Kristen Zolner will all produce on behalf of Imagine Television along with Brian Grazer, who produced the 1996 film.
Detailed information on the cast and production of Peacock’s Fear is unavailable but will likely be released as the series enters the later stages of development.
