The upcoming remake of It and the long-developing The Dark Tower film aren’t the only adaptations of classic Stephen King novels headed to movie theaters soon. Thanks to Deadline, we’ve learned that King’s novel Firestarter is getting another shot at the big screen soon; it will be directed by Oscar-winning screenwriter Akiva Goldsman and produced by Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions. King’s novel was made into a film in 1984 starring a very young Drew Barrymore as a pyrokinetic child, who is used by a shady government agency who attempt to harness her powers as a weapon.
The new version of Firestarter was first announced at the Overlook Film Festival in Oregon, which is named after King’s infamous haunted hotel from The Shining. Not only is the festival named for The Shining hotel, it is also held at the Timberline Lodge in Oregon, which served as the exterior of the Overlook Hotel in Kubrick’s classic film version of the novel.
Though Goldsman did win an Oscar winner for his work on A Beautiful Mind, he has had a long and varied career. Genre fans might know him for his most notorious contributions to geek culture: the scripts for Batman Forever, Batman & Robin, and Jonah Hex, not to mention other cheesy fare like Lost in Space. However, he also wrote the more respectable I Am Legend, and was an executive producer on Fringe. Together with Jason Blum, he produced Paranormal Activity 2, 3, and 4. Goldsman made his directorial debut with 2014’s A Winter’s Tale, and is writing the upcoming King adaptation, The Dark Tower.
More exciting than Goldsman’s helming of the movie is the fact that this is coming off a very hot streak for horror label Blumhouse Productions. The home of such successful modern horror franchises as Insidious and Sinister, this year’s offerings from Blumhouse, Get Out and Split, have ranked among the best reviewed and most successful horror movies of recent years. Both low budget films had a combined budget of less than $20 million dollars, and have grossed $5oo million worldwide already.
It’s unknown if Firestarter will have a larger budget or remain in Blumhouse’s wheelhouse of smaller budgeted fare, but it’s fair to say of this Goldsman/Blumhouse partnership that the Blumhouse part of the equation is the more exciting prospect right now. This would be the second Goldsman/Blumhouse collaboration after the just completed film Stephanie, which premiered at the Overlook Film Festival.
The original Firestarter is only an okay movie based on a much better book, and therefore it’s not as risky as remaking truly great King adaptations like Carrie or The Shining. In many ways, the original can be improved upon quite a bit. Here’s hoping they find a way to incorporate Prodigy’s 1997 hit song of the same name somewhere in the movie this time, maybe during one of the big pyro freak-outs. No release date has been given for the new Firestarter as of yet.
Are you excited for yet another Stephen King adaption/remake? Let us know your thoughts down below in the comments.
Images: Warner Brothers / Universal Studios
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