Upcoming Movies & TV Shows Based On Stephen King Stories

By Rachel West. 16 Nov 2020 3:07 PM

Everything old is new again as Stephen King’s works continue to get mined for film and TV remakes, reboots, and new projects. Here’s a list of everything currently in development.

Scribner/Stephen King

CBS All Access

Scribner

Indigo

ABC

Getty Images

Indigo

Getty Images

Indigo

Getty Images

Warner Bros.

Universal Pictures

Indigo

Indigo

stephenking.com

START OVER

Next Gallery: Cancelled Or Renewed?

More Galleries

1 of 17

‘The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon’
Scribner/Stephen King
Status: Pre-Production.

Director Lynne Ramsay (“We Need To Talk About Kevin”) will direct an adaptation of King’s 1999 psychological horror “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon” from a script she co-wrote with Christy Hall (“I Am Not Okay With This”). The story follows 9-year-old Trisha as she’s lost in the Appalachians with only her radio for comfort. Listening to baseball games and fantasizing that her favourite player Tom Gordon will come to her rescue, Trisha begins to realize she may not be alone in the woods.

Filming is set to begin in 2021 with Christine Romero, widow of horror icon George A. Romero, serving as one of the film’s producers.
'The Stand'
CBS All Access
Status: On CBS All Access December 17, Amazon Prime Video Canada in 2021

A fan of King, writer-director Josh Boone was tapped to write and direct a new adaptation of “The Stand”, as well as an adaptation of “The Talisman”.

In a somewhat timely tale, the over-800-page novel tells the story of a world in ruins following a devastating man-made plague and the ensuing battle of biblical proportions between Earth’s survivors. The story was previously adapted for a 1994 miniseries with Gary Sinise and Molly Ringwald.
'Revival'
Scribner
Status: In development

After tackling "Doctor Sleep" and "Gerald's Game", horror writer-director Mike Flanagan will set his sights on yet another King tale of terror: "Revival". Promising a "bleak and mean" adaptation of the 2014 story about a preacher who loses his faith and becomes obsessed with electrical experimentation after his wife and child are accidentally killed, Flanagan has the option to direct the film if he chooses. Either way, he promises to deliver a very dark take on the King story.

"It is relentlessly dark and cynical and I’m enjoying the hell out of that… I haven’t gotten to end a movie [this] way since ‘Absentia,’ maybe? Maybe ‘Ouija’? This one was a really fun piece of material for me because I get to be like, ‘Oh, you want a dark ending? Cool, get ready,'” he previously told the "Kingcast" podcast.

Production is expected to begin in late 2021.
‘The Long Walk’
Indigo
Status: Has a script.

King’s 1979 dystopian tale (written under his pseudonym Richard Bachman) about a futuristic America where 100 teenagers are picked to take part in a gruelling death march that will only end when one single kid remains. “Zodiac” and “Independence Day: Resurgence” writer James Vanderbilt has been tapped to write and produce the movie.
‘The Tommyknockers’
ABC
Status: In Development.

“The Tommyknockers” has been optioned for the big-screen treatment following the 1993 miniseries about an alien spaceship that crash-lands in the woods, infecting the residents of a sleepy Maine town and knocking out their teeth. Produced by “Aquaman” director James Wan, the movie will reportedly follow a script written by Jeremy Slater, writer of “The Exorcist” TV series.
‘Suffer The Little Children’
Getty Images
Status: In Development.

A schoolteacher questions whether her students are actually human after she witnesses their unsettling behaviour in King’s 1972 short story “Suffer The Little Children”. Editor-turned-director Sean Carter is rumoured to be attached to the project, though details on the status are slim. A short film based on the source material was made in 2015.
‘The Gingerbread Girl’
Indigo
Status: Pre-Production.

Frequent King collaborator Craig R. Baxley (“Kingdom Hospital”, “Storm Of The Century”) is on board to direct the thriller “The Gingerbread Girl” based on the author’s 2007 novella about a woman who encounters a killer while out on her morning jog.
‘The Talisman’
Indigo
Status: In development for nearly 35 years.

Universal optioned the rights to King’s 1984 fantasy novel before it was ever published, with the hopes that Steven Spielberg would direct the story about a young boy who goes on a quest across the U.S. to find a talisman he hopes can cure his cancer-stricken mother. The latest update sees “The Fault In Our Stars” director-writer Josh Boone penning the script with the possibility of directing, and has veteran producer Frank Marshall also aboard the project.
‘Drunken Fireworks’
Getty Images
Status: Script is complete.

A small-town mechanic competes with a retired mob boss in a local fireworks competition in “Drunken Fireworks”. James Franco is reportedly attached to star in the movie. He previously appeared in the miniseries “11.22.63”, based on a story by King.
‘Sleeping Beauties’
Indigo
Status: Optioned.

Penned by King and his son Owen, the story is set in a not-too-distant future where women fall prey to a horrific sleeping disease, leaving the town’s men abandoned and left to their own devices – with the exception of one unaffected female. The project is rumoured to be a Netflix movie produced by the team behind the streaming site’s shows “The OA” and “Maniac”.
‘Joyland’
Indigo
Status: Script is complete.

A murder mystery-meets-ghost story, King’s 2013 story “Joyland” is set to become a TV series. The story follows a carnival worker who investigates the legacy of a brutal murder after a child bonds with one of the victim’s ghosts.
‘The Jaunt’
Getty Images
Status: In development.

In 2015, Brad Pitt’s Plan B production company optioned the script for “The Jaunt” with future “It” director Andy Muschietti at the helm. While there’s been no update since the success of “It”, Muschietti is still attached to the project – for now. First published in a 1981 issue of Twilight Zone magazine, the short sci-fi story is set in the distant future where teleportation between worlds is common practice. There’s just one catch – people are under heavy anesthesia and unconscious for the journey. But, in case you couldn’t guess, someone wakes up and things go really awry on one trip.
‘Hearts In Atlantis’
Warner Bros.
Status: In development.

King’s "Hearts In Atlantis" is a collection of novellas that has already been sourced for the big screen once before: 2001’s “Hearts In Atlantis” with Anthony Hopkins, an adaptation of two of the book’s stories. Following a completely different story, the new “Hearts In Atlantis” is a coming-of-age tale about a young male student at an all-boys dormitory school during the Vietnam War where the students of the school have become obsessed with playing the Hearts. The writers of the shark thriller “47 Meters Down” are reportedly hammering out the script.
‘Firestarter’
Universal Pictures
Status: Has a script.

Acclaimed Turkish director Fatih Akin is on board to direct a remake of “Firestarter” for Blumhouse. The 1984 original starred Drew Barrymore as a young girl who can control fire with her mind. No cast has been announced yet.
‘The Dark Tower: Wizard And Glass’
Indigo
Status: Cancelled

“The Walking Dead” showrunner Glen Mazzara was tapped to produce a series based on the "Dark Tower" prequel at Amazon Prime Video with Danish writers Nikolaj Arcel and Anders Thomas Jensen penning the pilot's script. But, the project was cancelled by Amazon in early 2020.
‘From A Buick 8’
Indigo
Status: Optioned.

A sort-of companion piece to 1983’s “Christine”, “From A Buick 8” centres on a small town plagued by mysterious events that seem to be caused by a demonic car with access to otherworldly dimensions. William Brent Bell has been tapped to write and direct following his work on horror flicks “The Boy”, “The Devil Inside” and “Stay Alive”.
‘The Bone Church’
stephenking.com
Status: Optioned.

King formed the basis of “The Bone Church”, a narrative poem, back in the 1960s before it was eventually published in Playboy in 2009. Still in the very early stages of development, the project is reportedly being adapted for TV. The story features a drunken narrator who demands drinks to tell his harrowing and terrifying tale of his journey through the jungle to the mythic Bone Church – an adventure that saw 32 people set out into the wilderness and only three return.

Upcoming Movies & TV Shows Based On Stephen King Stories

More Galleries

Latest Galleries