If Stephen King writes something, it becomes a movie. That is just an age-old rule of Hollywood. Hell, I think if the man writes a grocery list, several studios will fight to acquire it.
King’s latest book of novellas, If It Bleeds, has just been turned into several movie deals. Three of the four novellas in the collection — Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, The Life Of Chucks and Rat — have all been optioned by various filmmakers. And these aren’t small time directors attaching themselves to these projects, mind you. These are some pretty big guns.
Netflix, Blumhouse and Ryan Murphy have optioned Mr. Harrigan’s Phone. Jason Blum and Carla Hacken will co-produce the future, which revolves around a young boy who befriends an old man who gets a new iPhone. Things get supernatural when the old man, Mr. Harrigan, passes away but his iPhone continues to work from beyond the grave. Netflix will be a good home for this one. The streaming service has produced quite a few King adaptations lately, including 1922, Gerald’s Game and In the Tall Grass. Like the rest of the movie industry, they like being in the Stephen King business.
Rat has been gobbled up by Ben Stiller, who wants to produce, direct and star in the film. The novella is about a writer who, suffering from writer’s block, makes an ill-conceived deal with a rat that ends up putting his life and family’s life in jeopardy. Ah, careful what you wish for.
Stiller has been doing great work lately, including the fantastic Escape at Dannemora for Showtime. The director has been moving in thriller territory over the years, dropping a lot of his trademark humor in favor of character-driven drama. I think Rat will be a wonderful fit for him. Zoolander, it will not be.
Finally we have The Life Of Chuck, which is set to be produced by Darren Aronofsky. Currently, Aronofsky is only producing the film but I think he would be a perfect fit to direct as well. The Life Of Chuck is definitely the novella that best suits Aronfsky. It’s an interesting story that explores the entire life of a man named Chuck, all from different vital points in his life. It’s bizarre, kinda heart-breaking, kinda creepy and kinda touching too. It’s not what most would expect from King, this is not a story that’ll create many jump-scares or horrific moments. Aronofsky’s involvement assures that this thing will garner a lot of interest from performers, studios and damn near anyone else involved.
You may be wondering why the fourth novella in the series, the titular If It Bleeds, hasn’t been optioned. Well, that one is a sorta-sequel to King’s previous novel The Outsider. Bleeds once again revolves around detective Holly Gibney. So while it hasn’t been picked up yet, there is a good chance that If It Bleeds will find a home soon too. Maybe HBO will produce it as a sequel series to The Outsider and will bring back Cynthia Erivo to reprise the role. I don’t think that would surprising in the slightest. Like I said, when a King project calls, people come a-running.