Teacup: James Wan Peacock series has 30 minute episodes, only adapts the spirit of the novel source material

The Peacock streaming service recently announced that the first two episodes of the James Wan-produced series Teacup, which is an adaptation of the 1988 bestseller Stinger, written by Robert R. McCammon (pick up a copy HERE), are set to premiere on October 10th… and if you’re wondering why the TV series has a different title than the novel source material, it turns out there’s a very good reason for that. Yellowstone consulting producer Ian McCulloch is a writer and executive producer on the show, in addition to being the showrunner, and he told SFX magazine that the show only really adapts the spirit of McCammon’s novel.

McCulloch said, “I think that if I had read the book as a teenager when it came out, I might have felt a little more beholden to it. This is a very different kind of adaptation in that it’s really the spirit of the thing and the ideas, and not much else.” He also revealed why the eight episodes are only around 30 minutes each: “I came up as a playwright long, long ago and the idea not only was always shorter, more economical episodes but to leave them wanting more.“

Peacock will be releasing two episodes of Teacup weekly through Halloween.

McCammon’s novel has the following description: The story takes place during a single twenty-four hour period in Inferno, Texas. Inferno is a town in trouble, driven to the brink by racial tension, gang violence, and a collapsing economy. But things can always get worse, and they do so with astonishing speed when an unidentified spacecraft crash lands in the desert outside of town, followed by a second craft bearing the alien being who will soon be known as Stinger. Stinger is a kind of interstellar hunter on a mission he intends to complete, whatever the cost. He brings with him an endless array of technological marvels and an infinite capacity for destruction that threaten the existence of Inferno, its inhabitants, and the larger world beyond.

Teacup will follow a disparate group of people in rural Georgia who must come together in the face of a mysterious threat to survive.

James Wan is executive producing Teacup through his company Atomic Monster, alongside Michael Clear and Rob Hackett. Other executive producers include McCulloch, McCammon, Francisca X. Hu, Kevin Tancharoen, and E.L. Katz, who directed the first two episodes. Danielle Bozzone is overseeing the project for Atomic Monster. The show is coming our way from UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group.

McCulloch provided the following statement: “When Atomic Monster first approached me about creating a series adaptation of Robert McCammon’s Stinger—a no-holds-barred, gargantuan spectacle of a novel along the lines of The Stand, Independence Day and Mars Attacks—to be honest, I didn’t want to throw my hat in the ring. I’m not a spectacle writer. I’m a less-is-more writer. I gravitate more toward what are known as keyhole epics. Large stories told through small lenses. Think Signs, The Thing, A Quiet Place. But here’s the thing. I read Stinger and it stayed with me. Wouldn’t leave me alone. I just couldn’t stop thinking about its razor-sharp premise, how it unfolds over the course of a single harrowing day, and about the relatable and real family McCammon puts center stage. That’s when the flash bang-light bulb idea hit… What if I adapted Stinger in a way that honors the book and stays true to the kinds of stories I like to tell? Keep the conceit. Keep Stinger’s most effective elements. Take away the large ensemble. Take away the giant set pieces. Even take away the book’s crowded town setting. The adaptation would be like an acoustic guitar version of, say, a Radiohead song. It won’t have the production value, electronic instruments, loops, or synthesized bells and whistles but it will still have the melody, the structure, the lyrics, the real magic at the core, all the stuff that makes a great song a great song. All of which is to say I could suddenly see exactly what to do and how to do it. Two weeks later, Atomic Monster had the script for the first episode. Soon after that, Peacock bought it. Not so long after that, both my creative and career dreams actually started coming true as more scripts were written, hires made, actors cast, sets built, and production began… Of course, during production the series changed and evolved. Just as it should. Even the title’s different. Stinger is now Teacup. The reasons for this are too spoilery to share but watch the first few episodes and all will be revealed. Point being, the series is now very much its own thing: a puzzle-box mystery, an edge-of-your-seat thriller, a can’t-but-must look horror story, a family drama, a science fiction epic—of the keyhole variety, of course. But as singular, strange, and surprising as I hope Teacup is, all you need to do is peel away the layers, characters, situations, and mythology and look behind the thrills, chills, hairpin turns and make-you gasp reveals. Do all that and you’ll see, at its heart, Teacup is still very much standing on the shoulders of Stinger. Just as it should.“

Wan added: “After reading Robert McCammon’s book Stinger, the entire team at Atomic Monster felt a spark. The story had all the ingredients for a captivating series and Ian McCulloch had a vision to bring it to life in a fresh way that was both startling and darkly atmospheric, but filled with a rich sense of humanity — often lacking in edgy narratives. Add in our incredibly talented cast led by Yvonne Strahovski, Scott Speedman and Chaske Spencer and fans are in for a true edge-of-your-seat experience. Teacup defies easy labels. It’s a genre-bending blend of horror, mystery, and drama, with layers that unfold like a captivating puzzle. It goes beyond chills and thrills and holds up a mirror to humanity, exploring the darkness that resides within us all. We hope you enjoy this wild ride as much as we’ve loved creating it!“

Are you looking forward to Teacup? What do you think of what Ian McCulloch had to say about the Stinger adaptation and episode length? Let us know by leaving a comment below.