Stephen King's Supernatural Horror-Thriller MILE 81 Is Getting a Film Adaptation
Another day, another Stephen King project gets picked up for development. Alistair Legrand (Clinical) is set to direct an adaptation of King’s supernatural horror-thriller Mile 81, which is a 2011 novella. It’s said to be a mix of Stand By Me and Christine.
The story is set around "a remote, boarded-up rest stop, and the movie will follow 12-year-old Pete, his brother, and a group of strangers who must fight to survive as they’re hunted by a mysterious force.”
This is why I don’t stop at rest stops when I travel! The movie is being produced by Ross M. Dinerstein, who recently produced Netflix’s adaptation of King’s 1922, which turned out to be a great movie. He is also producing the John Grisham inspired docu-series The Innocent Man.
Here’s a full description of the story:
With the heart of Stand By Me and the genius horror of Christine, Mile 81 is Stephen King unleashing his imagination as he drives past one of those road signs...
At Mile 81 on the Maine Turnpike is a boarded up rest stop on a highway in Maine. It's a place where high school kids drink and get into the kind of trouble high school kids have always gotten into. It's the place where Pete Simmons goes when his older brother, who's supposed to be looking out for him, heads off to the gravel pit to play "paratroopers over the side." Pete, armed only with the magnifying glass he got for his tenth birthday, finds a discarded bottle of vodka in the boarded up burger shack and drinks enough to pass out.
Not much later, a mud-covered station wagon (which is strange because there hadn't been any rain in New England for over a week) veers into the Mile 81 rest area, ignoring the sign that says "closed, no services." The driver's door opens but nobody gets out.
Doug Clayton, an insurance man from Bangor, is driving his Prius to a conference in Portland. On the backseat are his briefcase and suitcase and in the passenger bucket is a King James Bible, what Doug calls "the ultimate insurance manual," but it isn't going to save Doug when he decides to be the Good Samaritan and help the guy in the broken down wagon. He pulls up behind it, puts on his four-ways, and then notices that the wagon has no plates.
Ten minutes later, Julianne Vernon, pulling a horse trailer, spots the Prius and the wagon, and pulls over. Julianne finds Doug Clayton's cracked cell phone near the wagon door — and gets too close herself. By the time Pete Simmons wakes up from his vodka nap, there are a half a dozen cars at the Mile 81 rest stop. Two kids — Rachel and Blake Lussier — and one horse named Deedee are the only living left. Unless you maybe count the wagon.
The script for the film is being written by Legrand and Luke Harvis (The Diabolical). Production is planned for fall 2019 with casting currently underway.
I’m looking forward to seeing how this new Stephen King film project turns out.
Source: Deadline