It's a great time to be a fan of Stephen King, with Andy Muschietti's IT making historic money at the box office last year, and upcoming projects like Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and IT: Chapter 2 (among others) keeping the author's works in the limelight in the near future. Despite all of those projects currently in development, it seems that there's another one on the horizon as well, as the writers of A Quiet Place have officially been tapped for a film adaptation of King's The Boogeyman.
Stephen King's IP is hot right now, but this adaptation sounds like it could be one of the best projects yet. According to a report from Deadline, Scott Beck and Bryan Woods have been tapped by 20th Century Fox to pen the first-ever feature film adaptation of The Boogeyman -- a short story that was first published back in 1973. In addition to Beck and Woods, the film will be produced by Arrival producers Shawn Levy, Dan Levine, and Dan Cohen.
The Boogeyman has stayed in the cultural lexicon in the decades since it first debuted. Centering on a man reeling following the deaths of his three children at the hands of a monster he says was hiding in a closet, the story follows his mental deterioration and mostly takes place within the confines of his psychiatrist's office as he tries to make sense of the monster's presence in his life. The Boogeyman has been adapted to short films and even stage plays several times in the years since Stephen King initially published it thanks to his dollar babies, so it will be fascinating to see what Scott Beck and Bryan Woods do with the story.
The marriage of Stephen King source material with the writers of A Quiet Place seems like a match made in heaven. King's stranglehold on the horror genre arguably remains as strong as ever, but he also had nothing but positive things to say about the work done by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods on John Krasinski's film. In fact, after seeing A Quiet Place, King took to Twitter to shower praise on the film and wrote:
The Boogeyman is not the only iron that Scott Beck and Bryan Woods currently have in the fire. Coming off of the blockbuster debut of A Quiet Place earlier this year, the duo is also in the process of working on the upcoming project Haunt, which they're also directing. Additionally, while it's still too early to know if they will return to pen the script for A Quiet Place 2, that film's development could potentially keep them busy, as well. If nothing else, the newfound commitment to The Boogeyman continues to show that this writing team is interested in the horror genre.
CinemaBlend will bring you any relevant updates related to the development of The Boogeyman adaptation as new details are made available to us. Until we learn more, you can head over to our movie premiere guide to keep yourself up-to-date on all of 2018's biggest release dates.
