Lifetime is finalizing casting on A Midsummer’s Nightmare, its modern-day take on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Among the actors joining the previously cast Dominic Monaghan (Lost) are Haven‘s Eric Balfour and Carrie Diaries‘ Jake Robinson.
Chelsea Gilligan (Star-Crossed), Paul Walter Hauser (Kingdom) and Australian newcomer Ellie Gall have also boarded the pilot.
A Midsummer’s Nightmare — which is being billed as a psychological thriller— centers on four young lovers who are staying at the woodsy Dreamland Retreat (run by Monaghan’s character) in pursuit of their romantic desires. Their plans are quickly thwarted when terrifying forces in the deep woods target the stranded group, using their own fantasies and darkest secrets against them.
Balfour plays Mark, a surfer staying at the lodge with his wife, Joselin (played by Gilligan), both of whom begin to get more suspicious than concerned when strange things start happening to people. Robinson portrays Daniel, a wealthy yet stubborn attorney who is furious and heartbroken when he learns his fiancé Hannah (played by Gall) has run off with his best friend Liam to the Dreamland Retreat.
Anthony Jaswinski, the scribe behind last summer’s Blake Lively shark thriller The Shallows, penned the pilot script with Gary Fleder (Kingdom, Zoo) set to direct.
