Lynne Ramsay‘s career has been impressive but sporadic. After making films in 1999 and 2002, since then she’s made just two – 2011’s We Need To Talk About Kevin and 2017’s You Were Never Really Here. But the Scottish director has got a new project lined up, hopefully signalling that she’s not ready for another big gap between movies.
And talk about an exciting match. Ramsay has signed on to direct an adaptation of a Stephen King book. This one is a little less known; King’s 1999 psychological horror novel The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. Ramsay is co-writing the script with I Am Not Okay With This creator Christy Hall.
King’s novel follows a nine-year-old girl who gets lost in the woods while on a hike up the Appalachian Trail with her brother and recently divorced mother. Dehydrated and delirious, she begins to hallucinate her baseball idol, Tom Gordon, as well as a monstrous beast on her tail that may or may not be real.
Ramsay has always been interested in dark psychological stories. Her last two films are perfect proof of that, each devastating investigations into mental health and the damaging effects that can sprout from it if not properly treated. Her getting to helm a King adaptation, and a more off-the-beaten-track one too, is extremely intriguing.
This is far from the only King adaptation in the works. Ben Stiller, Darren Aronofsky and Ryan Murphy all optioned stories from King’s recently released collection If It Bleeds.
A new version of The Dark Half is also in the works, as are adaptations of Tommyknockers, The Breathing Method, Salem’s Lot, The Long Walk, and Revival. That’s just to name a few, and only the big screen adaptations.
Not all of those adaptations will be good – King adaptations have traditionally been very hit or miss – but if there’s one worth betting on being great, it’s Ramsay’s. We’ll now wait to see what young actress takes on what will surely be a demanding role, especially for a child.
#Peace.Love.TheGirlWhoLovedTomGordon
