Stephen King adaptations have been all the rage since 2017’s IT became the highest grossing horror film of all time. Thus, with the author recently releasing a collection of four novellas titled If It Bleeds, is it any surprise that three of the stories have quickly been snapped up for adaptations by three big Hollywood names?
Ben Stiller, Darren Aronofsky and Ryan Murphy have all optioned stories. Stiller has optioned Rat, which he intends to direct, produce and star in.
The story follows a frustrated writer with an acclaimed short story to his credit who turns to academia because each time he’s got a good book idea, something terrible happens. But he’s determined to write his latest idea for a western, turning to a Faustian bargain with a rat to alleviate his writer’s block.
Meanwhile, Aronofsky has optioned The Life Of Chuck, but will only produce the adaptation under his Protozoa banner. The story follows a middle-aged man named whose life is segmented into several supernatural chapter breaks.
Lastly, Murphy continues his incredibly prolific run by teaming with both Netflix and Blumhouse to option Mr. Harrington’s Phone. John Lee Hancock – who has already worked with Netflix on The Highwaymen – will write and direct.
This one revolves around a young boy who befriends an old billionaire living in his small neighbourhood, and they bond over the man’s first iPhone. But when the man dies, the boy discovers he’s still able to communicate with his friend from beyond the grave by contacting the device that was buried with him. This will be Netflix’s fourth King adaptation after 1922, Gerald’s Game, and In The Tall Grass.
So that’s three of the novellas in If It Bleeds, what about the fourth? Well that one, titled Let It Bleed, follows clairvoyant detective Holly Gibney, who was a character on the recent HBO miniseries The Outsider. There she was played by Cynthia Erivo, so while this story hasn’t been optioned yet, if HBO wanted to snag it and make a quasi-Outsider sequel, the opportunity is there.
This is a good time to be Mr. King. He’ll be hoping this batch of projects is similar to the last time he had this many stories from a novella collection optioned.
1982’s Different Seasons included Apt Pupil, The Breathing Method, The Body, and Rita Hayworth And The Shawshank Redemption. Apt Pupil became a horror film, while the latter two stories turned into Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption. You may have heard of them.
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