Carlton Cuse is following up his work on “Lost” with a new stab at the “Psycho” mythology in the upcoming A&E series “Bates Motel.”And while it will be filled with its own kind of mystery, Cuse also guaranteed where it will not go. Specifically, “No polar bears, no smoke monsters” he told a panel at the TV Critics Association winter press tour.
But, he added, “Time travel? I don’t know.”
In fact, the show is structured as a prequel of the action in Hitchcock’s “Psycho,”
exploring life at the iconic motel and the relationship of Norman Bates and his mother, who is fleshed out from the (half century spoiler alert!) skeleton she is in the original to the considerably more comely Vera Farmiga.
exploring life at the iconic motel and the relationship of Norman Bates and his mother, who is fleshed out from the (half century spoiler alert!) skeleton she is in the original to the considerably more comely Vera Farmiga.
But, confoundingly, it’s not set in the 1950s but solidly in the ear buds ‘n’ cell phone world of the 21st century.
That probably saved on production costs — no need to splurge on period sets — but was meant to send a message, Cuse said.
“The idea of doing a contemporary prequel made it clear that what we were doing was something that was inspired by ‘Psycho’ but not an homage to ‘Psycho,’ and that was a big difference to us. And it just seemed really interesting to us, this sort of fundamental idea of: How does Norman Bates become the guy who’s in that movie?”
Freddie Highmore who plays Norman Bates knows what he’s up against. “Anthony Perkins has done an iconic take,” Highmore says. “But the character of Norman Bates is also iconic. And so I guess I just want to do him justice and, yeah, make sure that we get the best Norman that we can.”
For his part, Cuse says, “for me I just was fascinated with telling the story of this mother and this son and their kind of the close relationship they have and how they kind of go from this really intense, close, loving relationship to what we sort of know of the characters in the movie, where she’s kind of stuffed in the window and he’s kind of a crazy killer. And it just felt like that was an interesting process of exploration.”
“Bates Motel” starts March 18 on A&E.