Thomas Jane Cast in New Stephen King Film Project FROM A BUICK 8
Thomas Jane (The Mist, Dreamcatcher, 1922) has been cast in yet another Stephen King film project, this one based on the novel From a Buick 8. I’m a fan of Jane and the work that he’s done, and this is going to be another great project for him to be a part of as it tells the story of a car which is a door to another dimension.
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. When the town is plagued by strange and supernatural events, it turns out the Buick isn’t what it seems to be.”
Jane and producer Courtney Lauren Penn (Altitude) are teaming up for the project with a production company that they set up called Renegade Entertainment. They had this to say in a statement:
“From a Buick 8 is a thrilling and deeply personal project for us. As we explore a uniquely structured mystery spanning the 70s, 80s, 90s and post-9/11 era, centered around a son’s search for the truth behind his father’s sudden death. Along with first love and grief, terrifying and philosophic mysteries are spawned by inexplicable events connected to the titular car. We are honored that Stephen is supporting our vision of his brilliant, provocative novel.”
The novel was once being developed as a directing vehicle for Night Of The Living Dead‘s George Romero and was also previously in the works at Hyde Park Entertainment with writer William Brent Bell. I guess the project was just waiting for the right team of people to bring it to life. As a fan of the book, I can’t wait to see how this movie turns out!
Here’s a full description from the book:
The state police of Troop D in rural Pennsylvania have kept a secret in Shed B out back of the barracks ever since 1979, when Troopers Ennis Rafferty and Curtis Wilcox answered a call from a gas station just down the road and came back with an abandoned Buick Roadmaster. Curt Wilcox knew old cars, and he knew immediately that this one was...wrong, just wrong. A few hours later, when Rafferty vanished, Wilcox and his fellow troopers knew the car was worse than dangerous -- and that it would be better if John Q. Public never found out about it.
Curt's avid curiosity taking the lead, they investigated as best they could, as much as they dared. Over the years the troop absorbed the mystery as part of the background to their work, the Buick 8 sitting out there like a still life painting that breathes -- inhaling a little bit of this world, exhaling a little bit of whatever world it came from.
In the fall of 2001, a few months after Curt Wilcox is killed in a gruesome auto accident, his 18-year-old boy Ned starts coming by the barracks, mowing the lawn, washing windows, shoveling snow. Sandy Dearborn, Sergeant Commanding, knows it's the boy's way of holding onto his father, and Ned is allowed to become part of the Troop D family. One day he looks in the window of Shed B and discovers the family secret. Like his father, Ned wants answers, and the secret begins to stir, not only in the minds and hearts of the veteran troopers who surround him, but in Shed B as well....
From a Buick 8 is a novel about our fascination with deadly things, about our insistence on answers when there are none, about terror and courage in the face of the unknowable.
Source: Deadline