No doubt Wrong Turn director Rob Schmidt was hoping to cause some people to lose sleep with his 2003 off-road thriller. Now he’s getting a chance to make some real insomnia though – Stephen King’s Insomnia, that is. The director announced over the weekend that he would be heading up the adaptation of Insomnia, and he’s potentially bringing some of his Wrong Turn team with him. The news comes from DreadCentral.com who had one of their staff attend the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors, where Schmidt made the announcement, stating he was doing the movie because King was a fan of Wrong Turn.
The Stephen King novel follows a character who has trouble sleeping, continually getting less and less sleep until he practically doesn’t sleep at all. Instead of sleeping he wanders around the town of Derry, Maine (a familiar location to King readers) and starts seeing strange sights. Are these visions created by his sleep deprivation or part of something bigger?
Schmidt addressed a couple potential issues with adapting the novel for the screen. First of all, this is a huge tome from King, which means some cutting down will be needed. Schmidt plans to focus on the town itself to determine where to make the cuts. Secondly, the characters start at an older age and get younger as the story progresses. For this Schmidt says he plans to cast young actors and age them so makeup can be removed. To help with this feat he’s turning to his makeup artist from Wrong Turn - the famous Stan Winston.
I have to admit I haven’t read Insomnia yet but I’ve been on a King kick as of late. I know many found Wrong Turn to be laughable at best, but if King has faith in Schmidt’s ability as a storyteller it might wind up as a decent flick. Hell, it can’t be any worse than the last story I saw set in Derry – the miniseries adaptation of It which featured great performances but couldn’t handle the scope of King’s ideas. Hopefully Insomnia and Schmidt can do better.
