It would seem that Stephen King is going to be a hot name at this year's Cannes Film Market, which is set to start up next week. Yesterday, we learned that an adaptation of the novella The Life Of Chuck from writer/director Mike Flanagan is going to be shopped at the upcoming event, and we now, less than 24 hours later, have news of another project in the works – this one being a feature version of the short story "The Monkey" that is being developed by writer/director Osgood Perkins and produced by James Wan.
Deadline is reporting that the film's lead has already been cast, as Theo James is attached to star. The original story centers on a father who is horrified when his two sons discover a cymbal-banging monkey toy while the family is cleaning out the attic of a deceased relative. It turns out that this innocent-looking doll is a cursed object from the protagonist's childhood that conjures horror and death, and he must try and find a way to get rid of it.
The short story was first published as an booklet included with the November 1980 issue of Gallery magazine, but most Stephen King fans are aware of it as a part of the 1985 short story collection Skeleton Crew.
Should it successfully make its way all the way through production, The Monkey will be the second Stephen King movie made by James Wan and his company Atomic Monster – his first being the developing remake of Salem's Lot (which is still waiting to get a release date). It was reported in March 2018 that Wan was developing a feature remake of The Tommyknockers, but there haven't been any updates about that project since, and it's not mentioned in the new trade report. In a statement about the newly developing movie, Wan says,
Stephen King is the godfather of the horror genre. He had a huge influence on me as a child and throughout my career, and it’s always been a dream to help bring one of his stories to life. The Monkey is a personal favorite, with its simple, iconic and incredibly marketable conceit. And I can’t imagine anyone better than a visionary and lifelong genre fan like Osgood to bring this to life.
Osgood Perkins made his directorial debut in 2015 with the horror film The Blackcoat's Daughter (starring Emma Roberts and Kiernan Shipka), and he followed that project up with two more genre feature efforts: 2016's I Am The Pretty Thing That Lives In The House with Ruth Wilson, and 2020's Gretel & Hansel with Sophia Lillis. He is currently in post-production on Longlegs, which features Nicolas Cage as an FBI agent on the hunt for a serial killer with connections to the occult.
Theo James is coming off of a very busy 2022 that included a lauded performance in the second season of the acclaimed HBO series The White Lotus. In addition to The Monkey, his upcoming projects include the series The Gentlemen, which is based on the 2019 Guy Ritchie film of the same name.
Stay tuned for more updates about The Monkey out of the Cannes Film Market and beyond here on CinemaBlend. You can keep track of all the Stephen King adaptations that are currently in the works with our Upcoming Stephen King Movies and TV guide, and read about the long history of past projects with my Adapting Stephen King column.
