Stephen King Handpicked A Director For One Of His Best Recent Stories, And I Can't Wait To See This Adaptation

Last year, Stephen King published You Like It Darker, his latest collection of novellas and short stories, and while there isn't a miss in the entire book, easily one of my favorite titles is "Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream." It's a tremendous blend of supernatural horror and mystery, and it keeps you gripped to the end thanks to its originality and rich characters. Following the tome's release, I ranked it second on my list of You Like It Darker stories I wanted to see get adapted, and now that adaptation has taken a step closer to becoming a reality.

According to New Zealand's The Post, a deal has been struck that will see up-and-coming filmmaker James Ashcroft take a stab at at making Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream into a movie. According to the report, Stephen King sent Ashcroft an email late last year after having seen the writer/director's latest feature The Rule Of Jenny Pen, and he inquired about Ashcroft's interest in adapting the You Like It Darker novella. King had apparently spent months declining offers for the story, but he likes what Ashcroft does, and he gave it to the Kiwi for the price of $1.

In the novella, the titular Danny Coughlin is a simple high school custodian who experiences a random psychic vision and becomes the number one suspect in a murder investigation. When he has a horrible dream about finding a dead body that just won't leave his consciousness, he visits the setting of the nightmare and discovers that it's real. He does the proper thing and contacts the authorities, but when he is unable to explain how he knew where the body was without referencing the supernatural, the cops start to investigate him as a possible killer – and he earns the ire of an obsessive, dangerous detective.

Stephen King and James Ashcroft's names were first linked last fall when the former got to see the latter's The Rule Of Jenny Pen and wrote about it on social media. King's post has since been deleted, but he said at the time,

In The Rule Of Jenny Pen, Geoffrey Rush plays a former judge who finds himself as the only person who can stop the actions of a psychopathic resident of a rest home who tortures those around him with a puppet (John Lithgow). The movie had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas last year, and while it is set up for distribution by Shudder, a release date has not yet been announced.

Clearly things are still in the very early stages with Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream, but like with all upcoming Stephen King movies and TV shows, you can expect to find all of the latest updates about the film reported here on CinemaBlend. Stay tuned for headlines about the project, and if you're in the need for weekly updates about the author and adaptations of his work, be sure to check out my column The King Beat, which runs every Thursday.