Production to Begin on Season Two of Original AT&T Audience Network Series MR. MERCEDES

AT&T* AUDIENCE Network will begin production on the second season of its breakout show MR. MERCEDES next month in Charleston, South Carolina. The series, produced by Sonar Entertainment, will premiere this summer exclusively on DIRECTV, AT&T U-verse and DIRECTV NOW.

Television veterans David E. Kelley (Big Little Lies, Ally McBeal) and Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, The Drop, Live by Night) will be leading the season 2 writers room. Jack Bender (Game of Thrones, Lost, Under the Dome) will return to direct 8 of 10 episodes. King, Kelley, Bender and Marty Bowen of Temple Hill Entertainment will continue to serve as executive producers, along with Lehane. The second season will be based on King's best-selling Bill Hodges Trilogy, which includes, "Mr. Mercedes," "Finders Keepers" and "End of Watch."

The original cast, which includes Brendan Gleeson ("Harry Potter") as Detective Bill Hodges, HARRY Treadaway ("Penny Dreadful") as Brady Hartsfield, Jharrel Jerome ("Moonlight") as Jerome Robinson, Scott Lawrence ("Avatar") as Detective Peter Dixon, Breeda Wool ("Unreal") as Lou Linklatter, Justine Lupe ("Francis Ha") as Holly Gibney, Nancy Travis ("How I Met Your Mother") as Donna Hodges, and Holland Taylor ("The Truman Show") as Ida Silver, will return for season 2.

New to the season are Jack Huston ("Boardwalk Empire") as Brady Hartsfield's doctor Dr. Felix Babineau and Maximiliano Hernandez ("Sicario") as Assistant DA Antonio Montez.

Season 1 of "Mr. Mercedes" followed a demented killer Brady Hartsfield (Harry Treadaway) who taunts a retired police detective Bill Hodges (Brendan Gleeson) with a series of lurid letters and emails, forcing the ex-cop to undertake a private, and potentially felonious, crusade to bring the killer to justice before he is able to strike again.

Stephen King describes "Mr. Mercedes" as his first hard-boiled detective tale. The novel was published by Scribner in June 2014 and became an immediate No. 1 New York Times Bestseller upon its release. Shortly after the release of the novel, King announced that "Mr. Mercedes" was the first of a projected trilogy. The second novel, "Finders Keepers," was published by Scribner in June 2015, and the third novel, "End of Watch," was published by Scribner in June 2016.

"Mr. Mercedes" season 1 episodes are available OnDemand on DIRECTV and U-verse platforms to DIRECTV and U-verse customers. AT&T AUDIENCE Network is available on DIRECTV Ch. 239 or U-verse TV Ch. 1114 and via live streaming on the DIRECTV and U-verse apps and DIRECTV NOW.

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