Moviefone Editorial

Tag: stephen king movie

  • David Dastmalchian, Chris Messina, and More Join ‘The Boogeyman’

    David Dastmalchian as Polka-Dot Man in 'Suicide Squad'
    David Dastmalchian as Polka-Dot Man in ‘Suicide Squad’

    As he starts the cameras rolling, director Rob Savage has announced the cast for his next movie. The man behind horror hit ‘Host’ will do his best to scare Chris Messina, Sophie Thatcher, Vivien Lyra Blair, David Dastmalchian, Marin Ireland and Madison Hu for ‘The Boogeyman’.

    It’ll mark a new adaptation of the Stephen King story, which originally appeared in a March 1973 issue of Cavalier magazine before it was collected in his 1978 collection “Night Shift.” One of the titles King has made available to filmmakers under the one-dollar rights agreement, it has been turned into a short and at least one other movie before.

    The tale follows a 16-year-old and her younger sister, still reeling from the death of their mother, who are targeted by a supernatural boogeyman after their father, a psychologist, has an encounter with a desperate patient in their house.

    We don’t yet know who will be playing which role, but Messina should be familiar from movies including ‘Argo’ and ‘Birds of Prey’. Thatcher has been burning up the small screen via work on ‘Yellowjackets’ and ‘The Book of Boba Fett’, while Blair is probably best known for Netflix’s ‘Bird Box’ opposite Sandra Bullock. Ireland was seen in ‘Hell or High Water’ and Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Irishman’, while Dastmalchian should be no stranger to genre fans given his work in last year’s ‘Dune’, the first two ‘Ant-Man’ movies and ‘The Dark Knight’. Hu, finally, was seen in sci-fi movie ‘Voyagers’.

    Chris Messina on HBO's 'Sharp Objects.'
    Chris Messina on HBO’s ‘Sharp Objects.’

    This movie has had to hack its way through the development thorns for a while before it ended up in Savage’s hands. The script’s passed through the likes of ‘Malignant‘s Akela Cooper and ‘A Quiet Place’ duo Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. The current draft is by ‘Black Swan’s Mark Heyman. And on board to produce is prolific filmmaker Shawn Levy, who is supporting the movie via his 21 Laps company.

    Savage is a great choice to direct this, as his previous work has been inventing and, more importantly, chilling. He broke out with 2020’s pandemic -set thriller ‘Host’, which saw a Zoom call go spectacularly, lethally wrong for its participants. It won plenty of acclaim and marked him as a director to watch.

    He’s since followed that up with another low-fi horror, ‘DASHCAM’, which has been playing to great impact at film festivals and will arrive in theaters via Momentum Pictures this summer. Produced by the Blumhouse team, the movie, stars Annie Hardy, Angela Enahoro and Amar Chadha-Patel in the story of a musician on her livestream as her night takes a dangerous turn when she agrees to help a frail elderly woman out of town.

    ‘The Boogeyman’, which arrives via Disney’s 21st Century Studios, will premiere on Hulu next year.

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  • ‘Firestarter’ Trailer Lights Up Online

    Ryan Kiera Armstrong in "Firestarter' courtesy of Universal Pictures
    Ryan Kiera Armstrong in “Firestarter’ courtesy of Universal Pictures

    There have been so many adaptations of horror master Stephen King’s work at this point that it was inevitable we’d start to see re-adaptations, as happened with the likes of ‘Pet Sematary’ and ‘It’. Today it’s the turn of Blumhouse’s new take on ‘Firestarter’ to make its psychic presence felt with a first trailer and poster.

    ‘Firestarter’, which King published in 1980, is the story of a girl whose parents participated in clandestine government agency experiments which have granted them certain psychic abilities and given their daughter extraordinary pyrokinetic powers.

    The book was first adapted into a movie in 1984 directed by Mark L. Lester and written by Stanley Mann, starring David Keith, Martin Sheen and a young, post- ‘E.T.’ Drew Barrymore as the main character.

    From the sounds of the official synopsis, the new movie will follow a similar path to the 1984 version, though it’ll be interesting to see how it deals with them themes of isolation, puberty, and mental health.

    Here’s the story: “For more than a decade, parents Andy (Zac Efron) and Vicky (Sydney Lemmon) have been on the run, desperate to hide their daughter Charlie (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) from a shadowy federal agency that wants to harness her unprecedented gift for creating fire into a weapon of mass destruction.

    Andy has taught Charlie how to defuse her power, which is triggered by anger or pain. But as Charlie turns 11, the fire becomes harder and harder to control. After an incident reveals the family’s location, a mysterious operative (Michael Greyeyes) is deployed to hunt down the family and seize Charlie once and for all. Charlie has other plans…

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    ‘Firestarter’s cast also includes Gloria Reuben (who appears to behind the shadowy agency looking to control Charlie’s fiery abilities), Kurtwood Smith and John Beasley.

    ‘The Vigil’s Keith Thomas is in the director’s chair here, with the script by ‘Halloween Kills’ co-writer Scott Teems. The ‘Halloween’ connections continue with news that John Carpenter is composing the score alongside regular collaborators Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies.

    In keeping with the remake aspect, the new movie’s poster is certainly looking to invoke the 1984 version’s flame-filled theme.

    We’ll have to wait and see whether this movie ends up launching a ‘Firestarter’ franchise – the original was followed by one TV-movie sequel, which followed a grown Charlie played by Marguerite Moreau. And this year alone, we have at least one other King adaptation headed to theaters: ‘Salem’s Lot’, with ‘Mr. Harrigan’s Phone’ and the ‘Pet Sematary’ remake sequel filming, plus various others in development.

    Produced by Blumhouse, the team behind ‘The Invisible Man’ (and many other recent chillers), the new ‘Firestarter’ will be looking to make sparks in theaters and on Peacock from May 13. Yes, that’s Friday the 13th for anyone keeping track; but don’t tell Jason Voorhees – he’ll just get jealous!

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  • Adaptation of Stephen King’s ‘Rest Stop’ in the Works at Legendary

    Adaptation of Stephen King’s ‘Rest Stop’ in the Works at Legendary

    Stephen King
    Stephen King/Facebook

    There’s already no shortage of Stephen King adaptations out there, and there are more on the way.

    The latest project is “Rest Stop,” a film Legendary is developing, Deadline reports. The thriller is based on King’s 2003 short story of the same name that first appeared in Esquire magazine. It won the 2004 National Magazine Award for Fiction.

    Alex Ross Perry (“Her Smell”) has been tapped to write and direct the upcoming movie. It will follow two women on a twisted journey following a fateful encounter at a highway rest stop. The story is described as “a propulsive cat and mouse thriller,” per Deadline.

    “Rest Stop” joins an ever-growing list of King adaptation. There are two current King-adapted TV series, “Mr. Mercedes” and “Castle Rock”; additionally, the film “Pet Sematary” hit theaters earlier this month. Upcoming adaptations include the films “It — Chapter Two,” “In the Tall Grass,” and “Doctor Sleep.”

    “Rest Stop” producers include Bread & Circus’ Craig Flores and Legendary’s Alex Garcia and Ali Mendes.

    [via: Deadline]

  • Stephen King’s ‘From a Buick 8’ Is His Latest Book Set for the Big Screen

    Scribner

    Following the major success of 2017’s “It,” Hollywood has seen a major outbreak of Stephen King fever, with studios snatching up the beloved horror author’s books left and right in order to develop the next huge hit. On Monday, “From a Buick 8” became the latest King property due for a film adaptation.

    Deadline reports that Hyde Park Entertainment has secured the rights to the 2002 novel, tapping William Brent Bell to write and direct. Bell is already experienced in the horror genre, having previously directed “The Boy,” “The Devil Inside,” “Wer,” and “Stay Alive.”

    According to Deadline, “From a Buick 8” continues a curious subgenre for King: The evil vintage car. The author previously tackled that subject in the 1983 novel “Christine”; it was made into a feature film later that same year. No one has put “Buick” on the big screen yet, though horror master George Romero was once attached to an adaptation.

    Here’s a rundown on “Buick,” per the trade:

    ‘From a Buick 8’ centers around the rural town of Statler, Pennsylvania where the state police have kept a mysterious 1954 Buick Roadmaster in the shed behind the barracks for over twenty years. But when the town is plagued by strange and supernatural events, it turns out the Buick isn’t exactly a car- it’s a door to another dimension.

    Sounds bonkers — which is exactly how we like Stephen King. No word yet on when the film is expected to enter production.

    [via: Deadline]