In the 1950s, author John D. MacDonald wrote The Executioners, an intriguing psychological thriller-suspense novel about Max Cady, a sex offender who gets paroled and seeks revenge against an attorney whose testimony helped put him in prison. That novel has been adapted into three projects, all titled Cape Fear. First, there was a 1962 movie starring Robert Mitchum, then there was a 1991 movie starring Robert De Niro (directed by Martin Scorsese), and finally, we have a 2026 Apple TV miniseries starring Javier Bardem.