Tommyknockers, Tommyknockers, knocking at your door.
Last year marked a serious uptick in all things Stephen King, with four new movies (It, The Dark Tower, 1922, and Gerald’s Game) and two new TV series (The Mist and Mr. Mercedes) based on the author’s work all premiering in 2017. And that trend is set to continue this year, as Universal Studios has just acquired the rights to turn King’s novel The Tommyknockers into a feature film.
According to Deadline, Universal has tapped horror maestro James Wan (Saw, The Conjuring, Insidious) to produce the film, and he may end up directing as well. Universal reportedly came out on top following a bidding war with Netflix and Sony, and are clearly hoping for a box office result more in line with It ($700 million worldwide) than The Dark Tower ($113 million worldwide).
The Tommyknockers is a 1987 novel by King, and the most science-fiction story he’s ever written. It focuses on a small Maine town (where else?) whose residents become transfixed, and later transformed, by a recently unearthed alien spaceship that was buried long ago in the town’s woods. King himself has since largely criticized the novel, telling Rolling Stone in 2014 that it was an “awful book,” but it has plenty of fans. It was previously adapted as a 1993 ABC miniseries starring Jimmy Smits, and that version — while decidedly low budget — maintains a decent amount of charm and popularity today. Still, we can’t help but get excited over the prospect of a big budget Tommyknockers movie — especially with a master of horror like Wan at the helm.
