Writer and actor Mark Gatiss (Dracula, A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story) is keeping the Christmas ghost story tradition going with Lot No. 249, a new BBC adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle‘s short story. Deadline reports that Gatiss will reunite with “Game of Thrones” alum Kit Harrington for the project.
Lot No. 249 will air on BBC Two this Christmas. A U.S. distributor has not yet been named.
The adaptation ““revolves around a group of Oxford students, one of whom undertakes research into the secrets of Ancient Egypt, which become the talk of the college. Can these experiments truly breathe life to the horrifying bag of bones which is the mysterious Lot. No 249?”
Harrington will star alongside Freddie Fox (“The Great,” Victor Frankenstein). Harington will play Abercrombie Smith and Fox will play Edward Bellingham.
Colin Ryan (Boundless), John Heffernan (Dracula), James Swanton (Stopmotion), Jonathan Rigby (Father Brown) and Andrew Horton (Slotherhouse) also star in this Mummy story.
Gatiss told Deadline, “It’s a serious delight for me to delve once again into the brilliant work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, this time for the Christmas Ghost story. Lot No.249 is personal favourite and is the grand-daddy — or should that be Mummy? — of a particular kind of end of empire chiller: a ripping yarn packed with ghastly scares and who-knows-what lurking in the Victorian closet.”
Gatiss wrote Lot No. 249, having previously adapted various Sherlock Holmes novels for BBC between 2010 and 2017, alongside former “Doctor Who” showrunner Steven Moffat.
Doyle’s short story was first published in Harper’s Magazine in 1892. Many horror fans will recognize the story from its adaptation in anthology Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, which featured Steve Buscemi as Edward Bellingham, the mastermind using a mummy to terrify and torment his enemies.
Horror could use more killer mummies, so here’s to hoping a U.S. distributor gets announced soon.