The Upcoming Adaptation of Stephen King's FIRESTARTER Casts Michael Greyeyes as the Villain
Michael Greyeyes (Fear The Walking Dead) has joined Zac Efron in Blumhouse Pictures’ upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s Firestarter. Greyeyes will take on the villainous role of Rainbird, “a relentless powerful man who has been pushed into a violent life. The character was previously played by George C. Scott in the original 1984 movie.
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.
Efron will play the girl’s father, Andy McGee. Keith Thomas (The Vigil) will direct Firestarter, the script of which is being adapted by writer Scott Teems (Halloween Kills, Rectify), who will also executive produce. Jason Blum and Akiva Goldsman are producing.
The director of the film previously 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 gearing up to shoot later this year. I’ve always liked this story, and the 1984 film that starred Drew Barrymore. It’ll be interesting to see what this new vision of the story will look like.
Source: Deadline