Ethan Hawke is reuniting with director Scott Derrickson for Midnight Radio, a horror fiction podcast set to premiere October 22. The two previously collaborated on Sinister and The Black Phone, and this time they’re trading cameras for microphones.
Hawke stars as the host of a conspiracy minded, late night AM radio show who takes a call from a man claiming to have survived a lost, secret American space mission. From there, the series unfolds through government cover ups, interdimensional breaches and what the official synopsis describes as psychological warfare, with eerie, half formed signals buried in the static.
The cast joining Hawke includes Noah Centineo, Willa Fitzgerald, Vincent D’Onofrio, Levon Hawke, Austin Pendleton and Hubert Point-Du Jour. Derrickson created the series with longtime writing partner C. Robert Cargill, the pair behind the scripts for both Sinister and Doctor Strange.
Midnight Radio runs nine episodes, with new instalments dropping every Thursday at 3 a.m. ET starting October 22. It’ll be available on the iHeartRadio app and other major podcast platforms.
Hawke and Cargill funded the project themselves, with no studio or network money involved, specifically to keep creative control out of anyone else’s hands. Hawke, for his part, pointed to what the format offers that a horror film doesn’t: “there’s an intimacy to the audio only medium that can be really powerful,” he said, adding that intimacy can be turned “to a terrifying effect” when the story demands it.
No plot details beyond the pilot setup have been confirmed, and Rue Morgue will have more on Midnight Radio as the October 22 premiere approaches.
