With the announcement that Mike Flanagan is taking on his third Stephen King adaptation in Revival, I wondered how many upcoming King projects there currently are. Back a thousand years ago in 2017, It was the most successful R-rated film of all time, and the floodgates opened up. Every single King project was seemingly up for appraisal, and these greenlights started to start releasing last year. We got Pet Semetary, It Chapter II, Doctor Sleep, In the Tall Grass, and Creepshow on Shudder, with The Outsider just last January.
More are coming. Twenty individual projects have in fact been announced, not counting potential future seasons of the current King shows (though we’re definitely getting more Creepshow). It’s unlikely all these make it to the finish line, but here’s a breakdown of where they all stand, or at least my best guess as to where they stand, based on the information available! But bear in mind, it’s early. None of these projects have release dates or any promotional art released.
MOVIES
THE TOMMYKNOCKERS: Announced over 2 years ago as a project for The Conjuring’s James Wan, this appears to be stagnating, but is still officially in development with Universal. It’s not anyone’s favorite King novel, a goofy alien invasion story, but it’s a memorably gory novel, with a truly insane plot, so it might be fun to see this make it to theaters.
STATUS: UNLIKELY
THE BREATHING METHOD: This is set up with Scott Derrickson of Doctor Strange fame as a Blumhouse film. Anyone whose read it will tell you this odd little bit of magical realism doesn’t seem like a film, but it’s the fourth part of the novella collection Different Seasons, the other three of which were the basis for The Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil and Stand By Me, which was probably what got this greenlit.
STATUS: POSSIBLE
SALEM’S LOT: From James Wan and Gary Dauberman, this adaptation was just recently announced, and online chatter suggests this will be what we get instead of the Tommyknockers film. Dauberman is directing. This one seems likely to get made, with New Line.
STATUS: LIKELY
THE LONG WALK: Also set up with New Line, this has been announced as a project for Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark’s Andre Ovredal, though with news he’ll be helming the sequel to that film it’s unclear where that leaves Long Walk. Frank Darabont held the rights for a long time, but they have since lapsed.
STATUS: POSSIBLE
REVIVAL: Just announced this week as a new Mike Flanagan film. Read about it here.
STATUS: LIKELY
FROM A BUICK 8: Thomas Jane, star of King movies The Mist, 1922 and Dreamcatcher, has announced that he is forming ‘Renegade Entertainment’ to make this film happen, as a passion project. It’s a strange one, about a car that opens a doorway to alternate dimensions and then…sits in a parking lot for twenty years.
STATUS: POSSIBLE
THE BOOGYEMAN: The writers of The Quiet Place films, Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, are developing this short story from the Night Shift collection. It’s one of King’s scarier campfire story types, with a Gotcha ending and all, but it’s also about ten pages long, so will likely serve as a starting point.
STATUS: POSSIBLE
MILE 81: Not much to report on this one, adapted from a recent story about a very unique kind of killer car, but it’s being worked on by 1922 helmer Allistair Legrand. It would fit right in with Netflix’s recent smaller King offerings, like 1922 and In the Tall Grass, so I’d expect to see it there.
STATUS: LIKELY
REST STOP: The first of two announced Alex Ross Perry King films, this is set up with Legendary Pictures. The short story in question is a bit of moral dilemma, about a guy stopping to use a rest stop bathroom and hearing the sounds of domestic abuse from the women’s side.
STATUS: POSSIBLE
THE DARK HALF: The second Alex Ross Perry project, this is one of King’s mid-tier, mid-period airplane books. It’s about an author’s pseudonym coming to life and running amok, published shortly after King’s own pseudonym Richard Bachman was revealed. It’s not a bad one, and is surprisingly a strong contender for King’s most violent material, but there is already a pretty good adaptation of it, from George Romero no less. This was announced just last December, so it’s probably in active development.
STATUS: LIKELY
THE TALISMAN: Amblin has been trying to make this adventure tale since the 90s, once as a Steven Spielberg picture. It’s a natural fit, as the novel feels like an 80s Amblin kids film that got shook upside down for five minutes. Sort of a hyperviolent YA novel, maybe Philip K Dick trying to write a Harry Potter adventure. Apparently a script by Chris Sparling exists, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up on this one.
STATUS: UNLIKELY
CHILDREN OF THE CORN: This one’s interesting. Never formally announced, this new adaptation of the short story (apparently a reboot/remake) is currently filming in Australia. Yes, currently. The director, Equilibrium’s Kurt Wimmer, has received an exemption to general quarantine restrictions. And apparently, they’re getting consistently reported to the local police as breaking social distancing rules. Cool! No word on when you’ll see this one.
STATUS: LIKELY
THROTTLE: Just announced, this is an adaptation of a novella pretty much no one knows about, that King wrote with his son Joe Hill. It’s about bikers fighting big rig trucks, and will likely debut on HBO Max.
STATUS: POSSIBLE
TELEVISION
THE STAND: The long-awaited remake of King’s apocalyptic fantasy epic is a done deal, reportedly. A ten episode limited event series, this is shot and awaiting a release date. You have to imagine they’ve got a bit to think about in regards to that release, given how it’s a story about a global plague killing everyone, but every expectation is that we’ll see this in 2020. No trailer yet, but it shouldn’t be too much longer. Longtime King project bridesmaid Josh Boone is directing and writing, and the (weird) cast includes James Marsden, Greg Kinnear, Whoopi Goldberg, Alexander Skarsgard and Marliyn Manson, as Trashcan Man. Coming out on CBS All Access.
Status: IN THE CAN
THE EYES OF THE DRAGON: Announced about a year ago as a project in development at Hulu, sort of their answer to Games of Thrones. Being written and developed by Seth Grahame-Smith, of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter fame. There were a lot of these ‘answers to Game of Thrones’ announced, and no further information is out there on this one. The novel is a YA fantasy novel, very much King experimenting with genre. Its main claim to fame is that is features perennial King villain Randall Flagg in a major role.
STATUS: POSSIBLE
THE INSTITUTE: The rights for King’s latest have been purchased by David E Kelley, super producer, who’s also responsible for the current Mr Mercedes series. No distribution information yet, although the book seems like a natural fit for TV (sort of a Stephen King version of The New Mutants).
STATUS: LIKELY
CHAPELWAITE: This is the Jerusalem’s Lot adaptation announced last December, starring Adrian Brody. It has since undergone a name change, and King hardcores may recognize Chapelwaite as the name of the ancestral home at the center of the short story. Emily Hampshire from Schitt’s Creek has joined as the female lead. It’s being produced by Epix, the first produced series by the relatively new network. Shooting in Nova Scotia, the only thing holding this one up (and likely making it miss debuting this year) is the rona.
STATUS: LIKELY
JOYLAND: A slim novella by King about working summer jobs at regional amusement parks, this is reportedly being developed as a series for Freeform. Everyone needs content. From producer Bill Haber, who previously worked on the King miniseries Nightmares and Dreamscapes, if anyone remembers that one. Announced a year and a half ago, no further news.
STATUS: POSSIBLE
LISEY’S STORY: One of King’s more recent novels, a strange fantasy about literary inspiration and long relationships. This is being developed as a headliner property for AppleTV+, another new streaming service, this has an excellent cast (Julianne Moore, Clive Owen, Dane DeHaan), and is only being held up by the pandemic. This one features a script by King himself, which is generally a mixed bag, but considering this is one of King’s occasional deep dives into wacky, literary fantasy, it should be interesting to see how he imagines it working on screen.
STATUS: LIKELY
SLEEPING BEAUTIES: The rights for this were snatched up by AMC right when it was released in 2017, who waited until about a year ago, when they ordered a pilot, written by co-writer and King son Owen. It’s about a world where all the women fall into weird alien comas and the men battle one another in fear. It’s not one of my favorites, but I can imagine the show in my mind. It looks like on of those attempts to duplicate the success of Lost in the 2000s. Shows like Invasion or Threshold. Remember them?
STATUS: POSSIBLE
OVERLOOK: Being developed by JJ Abrams and some of his Castle Rock team, to premiere on HBO Max, which I’m still very unclear on. This is intended as an anthology show tracing the many haunted tales of the hotel from The Shining. There’s some backstory involving gangsters in the book to elaborate on, but this will certainly have to be its own thing, pretty quick. Could be very cool, sort of like the Fargo series but with King instead of the Coens as inspiration, but that’s what we said about Castle Rock too.
STATUS: LIKELY
THE DARK TOWER: This is, or rather, was the Amazon adaptation of Wizard and Glass, the flashback novel from the Dark Tower series, and one we optimistically hoped could be the filmed version of this story the movie failed to be. It had a full cast, with interesting character actors like Michael Rooker and Jerome Flynn, and they completed a pilot. But Amazon decided not to go to series with it, giving as reason that it did not match the quality of its other pilots. Twitter reactions from the few that did manage to see it back this up. As cool as it might have been if it were good, it sounds like it wouldn’t have made anyone happy anyway.
STATUS: DEAD
So there you have it! And of course, we may get more episodes of Castle Rock, if you’re so inclined, and King’s latest book, If It Bleeds, follows the surviving characters from The Outsider, so they could always pull the trigger on that as well. What are you looking forward to most? Least? What big one are they missing (make Insomnia as an enhanced reality experience, you cowards!)?