First images of Javier Bardem in the remake of Nerves on Raw

A new version of Martin Scorsese’s classic, released in 1991…

35 years ago, it was Robert De Niro who scared the crap out of us by tracking down Nick Nolte and his family. Today, it’s Javier Bardem who takes up the torch of the famous psychopath from Cape Fear, aka The Nerves on Raw.

Apple TV has just announced that its series will arrive on June 5, with two episodes at once to get the ball rolling. The platform revealed the first images during a press conference (with a teaser shown only on site), while creator and showrunner Nick Antosca was on hand alongside Patrick Wilson and Amy Adams, who will face Bardem in the casting.

Formatted in 10 episodes, the series is inspired by the novel The Executioners by John D. MacDonald (1957), but also by the cult adaptation by Martin Scorsese released in 1991 – itself a remake of the 1962 film directed by Gregory Peck. Marty is also executive producer on this new version, just like Steven Spielberg, already in charge at the time on the feature film.

This time, Cape Fear especially wants to examine “America’s obsession with true crime in the 21st century”, according to the official description. The starting point: a couple of lawyers, Anna (played by Amy Adams) and Tom Bowden (Patrick Wilson), see their lives turned upside down when Max Cady (Javier Bardem), the notorious killer they helped put behind bars, is released. And he doesn’t go out to turn the page: he goes out to take revenge.

Around the main trio, we will see: CCH Pounder, Joe Anders, Lily Collias, Jamie Hector, Malia Pyles, Anna Baryshnikov, Ron Perlman, Ted Levine and Margarita Levieva.

So how do you succeed two sacred monsters like Robert Mitchum and Robert De Niro in the shoes of Max Cady? For Amy Adams, Javier Bardem is not content to impose his aura. It also twists the character differently. “He brings his natural charisma, but also a lot of vulnerability. There is immense devastation in this betrayal. I can’t wait for you to discover that,” she teased.

For his part, Nick Antosca claims the horrific heritage of Scorsese’s film – and promises a series that plays less on jump scares than on slow poison. “From the first moment, the series speaks for me of a diffuse, ambient fear,” he explains. A terror that fits the era: “It reflects the atmosphere of being alive in 2026, with its uncertainties, its ambiguities and its paranoia…”