The Director of The New Adaptation of Stephen King's FIRESTARTER Teases What To Expect
Blumhouse is producing a new adaptation of Stephen King’s classic novel Firestarter and director Keith Thomas is deep into the development of the project.
King’s original story follows a young girl named Charlie McGee, who develops pyrokinetic abilities and is abducted by a secret government agency called the Department of Scientific Intelligence, aka “The Shop.” They want to harness her powerful gift as a weapon. This obviously was a heavy influence on Stranger Things. The first film was released in 1984 and starred a very young Drew Barrymore.
We’ve got a bit more information to share with you on the project thanks to a recent interview with Thomas. While talking with Zavvi, he said that he explained that he plans on doing something "new" with the story, but also promises that fans will see all the insane telekinetic chaos that you’d expect from the story:
"It’s a new adaptation of the book. When [producer] Jason [Blum] pitched it to me it was exciting, as that’s one of my favorite Stephen King novels, and whilst I really like the 1980s film, I felt we could do something new. The screenplay is by Scott Teems who wrote the upcoming Halloween Kills, it’s an amazing script. It has everything you would want; people’s heads catching fire and their faces melting off, and a dad and daughter on the run trying to survive being chased in this heightened tense experience. We are hoping to film it this year, and it will be a lot of fun."
Thomas went on to share that King is very happy with how the project is coming along so far:
"He watched The Vigil, approved me as director, and he read the script from the early stages, and he’s very happy with it. He’s excited for it, he’s there the whole way."
Firestarter is being written by screenwriter Scott Teems (The Quarry) and the film is gearing up to shoot later this year if everything works out with opening film production back up. There’s no word on who will star in the film, but I’m curious to see who ends up being cast in the lead role.