Considering the success of It, as well as a handful of other Stephen King adaptations this year, many predicted a King renaissance of sorts. So it’s no surprise to hear the news that Josh Boone (New Mutants, The Fault In Our Stars) has been hired to adapt King and Peter Straub‘s dark fantasy novel The Talisman for Amblin Entertainment.
As of now, Boone is currently set to just write the script, though there’s a possibility that he could also move into the director’s chair at a later date. Steven Spielberg had previously been attached in the very early days when he snatched up the rights for an adaptation. Spielberg’s regular producer Frank Marshall revived the project this year after the renewed interest in King adaptations.
King and Straub’s source material follows a 12 year-old boy, Jack Sawyer, who heads on a quest to a parallel dimension known as The Territories to find a mystical talisman who can possibly save the life of his terminally ill mother. It was originally published in 1984, but despite the repeated efforts of Hollywood, an adaptations has yet to get anywhere close to being made.
Boone is actually very familiar with King’s work, as he was previously tapped to write and direct King’s apocalyptic opus The Stand, before the project fell through. He was then recruited to adapt Revival, King’s 2014 novel about addiction and fanaticism, which is currently still in the works.
So the King-assaince as it were is in full swing. Boone is likely set to enter the a higher plane on the pop culture spectrum when X-Men: New Mutants arrives next year, so it’s smart to snap him up now before he’s in even bigger demand next year. Hopefully this new love for King’s work leads to a more consistent set of adaptations, as over the years they’ve been hit and miss, at best.
#Peace.Love.Talisman
