The CW Announces Key Cast For New ‘The Lost Boys’ Pilot – L to R: Branden Cook, Lincoln Younes, Ruby Cruz
The CW has revealed the new cast for its latest attempt at bringing cult classic movie ‘The Lost Boys’ to the small screen, as it announces key roles for Branden Cook, Lincoln Younes and Ruby Cruz.
Based on the 1987 movie cult classic, ‘The Lost Boys’ follows a mother and her Generation Z sons who move to the seaside town where she grew up. They soon discover there is a sinister reason the local cool kids sleep all day, party all night, never grow up and never get old. Family bonds are tested as the brothers find themselves on opposite sides of a mythological struggle.
Whilst this new small-screen version takes the premise of the original movie, they are changing up some of the character names, as Branden Cook takes the role of older brother Garrett. This would seem to be a replacement for Michael, played by Jason Patric in the film version. Cook is a relative newcomer, having recently graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. However, he is due to appear in Lena Dunham’s upcoming HBO series ‘Industry’.
Lincoln Younes takes the role of Benjamin, who is the charismatic leader of the town’s vampire gang. This is the replacement for David, played by Kiefer Sutherland in the movie. Younes most recently starred in ABC drama ‘Grand Hotel’, but he is Australian, so (as is the law with Aussie actors) he previously starred in ‘Home and Away’ playing Casey Braxton.
Ruby Cruz is set to play Elsie, a young girl who is attracted to Garrett, the new guy in town. This is the replacement for Star, the character played by Jami Gertz in the original film. Cruz is also a relative newcomer but has recently been playing the teen version of Lizzy Caplan’s character Annie in ‘Castle Rock’. She also popped up in an episode of ‘Blue Bloods’.
This version of the ‘The Lost Boys’ comes from Heather Mitchell (‘Scandal’, ‘Grey’s Anatomy’) and Rob Thomas (‘iZombie’, ‘Veronica Mars’), although the idea of bringing the vampire movie to tv has been kicked around The CW since 2016. Thomas originally pitched a widely different take on the drama, which worked more like an anthology series. “The network didn’t want to go that far outside the box,” commented Thomas, and it didn’t make it to a pilot, although the network was still interested in the idea of bringing the property to the small screen.
When Thomas got tied up with his ‘Veronica Mars’ reboot, Mitchell was brought on board for a new take which was closer to the original film, whilst Thomas took an exec producer role. That version did make it to a pilot last season but was not picked up. This new iteration sees Thomas back on writing duties alongside Mitchell as they rework the script. Marcos Siega, the man behind the camera for the ‘Batwoman’ and ‘Vampire Diaries’ pilots is set to direct. Thomas, Mitchell and Siega exec produce along with Dan Etheridge of Spondoolie Productions, and Mike Karz and Bill Bindley of Gulfstream Television.
‘The Lost Boys’ is only a pilot at the moment, and might not make it to series, but we’ll let you know when we hear more.
