Zac Efron Cast in Blumhouse's New Film Adaptation of Stephen King's FIRESTARTER
Zac Efron has been cast to star in Blumhouse’s upcoming new film adaptation of Stephen King’s 1984 novel Firestarter. The movie is being directed by Keith Thomas from a script by Scott Teems (Halloween Kills).
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. Efron is 33 years old and he’s at the stage of his career where he can start taking on roles of a young father. He also recently signed on to star in a Three Men and a Baby remake for Disney+.
Blumhouse confirmed the news of Efron’s casting on Twitter:
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 if everything works out with opening film production back up. I think this will be a good role for Efron to take on, and I’m curious to see who ends up being cast as the young girl. Drew Barrymore gave a fantastic performance in the original film.