Stephen King Teases A Dark Remake Of A Classic Christmas Movie
If there’s one thing you can count on Stephen King for, it’s twisted and creepy ideas. King recently took to Twitter to talk about how Jimmy Stewart looks crazy at the end of It’s a Wonderful Life, prompting another Twitter user to ask him to make his own dark version of the classic Christmas movie. In the tweet below, King suggests after the film ends his hero murders his entire family.
Stephen King is also notoriously prolific, so he could probably knock out a dark spin on a pre-existing story in a few weeks if he put his mind to it. Of course, King is also plenty busy with the multitude of projects he has going on, so don’t count on getting a dark Christmas tale anytime soon. Of course, Hollywood you more than covered if you want to see some adaptations of his work.
In 2022 alone, there were two Stephen King adaptations that Hollywood put out — Firestarter directed by Keith Thomas, and Mr. Harrigan‘s Phone directed by John Lee Hancock. Firestarter starred Zac Efron and Ryan Kiera Armstrong in a film based on the novel that tells the story of a pyrokinetic girl with a telepathic artist. Mr. Harrigan’s Phone was adapted from the novella in King’s If It Bleeds and stars Donald Sutherland, Jaeden Martell, Joe Tippett, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste.
Since Stephen King writes so much, it’s pretty much inevitable that we get a King adaptation every year or so. In 2023, there are already two adaptations (supposedly?) planned including Salem’s Lot directed by Gary Dauberman and The Boogeyman directed by Rob Savage. Salem’s Lot will star Lewis Pullman, Makenzie Leigh, Bill Camp, Pilou Asbæk, Alfre Woodard, and William Sadler in a story that follows a writer returning to his hometown to find it overrun by vampires.
The Boogeyman stars Madison Hu, Vivien Lyra Blair, Sophie Thatcher, David Dastmalchian, and Chris Messina. It follows a teenage girl and her little sister facing a sinister presence in their house and trying to get the help of their father before it’s too late. Salem’s Lot and The Boogeyman don’t have precise release dates nailed down yet, but they’re both scheduled to come out in 2023.
While you wait for more Stephen King adaptations, you can also check out his most recent additions to his extensive bibliography. In 2022, he released Gwendy’s Final Task which is the third novel in a series and is co-written by Richard Chizmar. He also released the fantasy novel Fairy Tale. Unsurprisingly, Fairy Tale already has an adaptation in the works with Bourne franchise director Paul Greengrass attached to adapt, direct, and produce.
Stephen King’s seemingly supernatural power to get his books adapted into TV shows and movies is no joke, as those upcoming adaptations are just scratching the surface. There are currently around 15 upcoming movie adaptations planned and seven TV series in varying stages of production. In short, although we might not be getting a twist on It’s a Wonderful life from horror’s most popular author, you can at least count on getting plenty of content from his works in the future.
