Blumhouse has been on a tear as of late when it comes to horror movie remakes. With a franchise currently progressing on the back of its successful Halloween reboot, as well as its version of The Craft currently in production, Jason Blum’s production house of horrors is now set to reimagine yet another genre classic: Stephen King’s novel Firestarter.
With a remake of the film adaptation in the works for the past couple of years, the studio has made some moves to bring the project back into active duty. And chiefly among them is selecting director Keith Thomas to take over the directing duties for this new Firestarter, which is a pretty big change.
Previously, director Faith Akin was selected to oversee Blumhouse’s new version of the 1984 Drew Barrymore classic. But as anyone will tell you, the road to production is rarely ever easy or set in stone. However, it sounds like not only is the Firestarter remake an active concern with the studio, it looks like it’s going to be one of its next films in production.
According to Collider’s report on his drafting, Keith Thomas has been selected to direct Firestarter presumably off the back of his directorial debut, The Vigil, which released earlier this year. Halloween Kills' Scott Teems is still on board the project as the writer who will retell the story of a young girl with the gift of telekinesis and her quest to evade capture by the government that created her.
That could lead to the assumption that the script for Firestarter’s next theatrical round is already locked, and only in need of a little tightening. Pair that with a new director hired for the project and Blumhouse’s insane ability to make a film under the radar in a quick period of turnaround, and you’ve got a film that could hit theaters anywhere between 2020 and 2021.
Much like Blumhouse's other efforts in resurrecting classic horror films at Universal, Firestarter will presumably bring this story into the modern age. But even more impressive is the fact that this project is the first Stephen King property that Blumhouse has tackled. So if the master of horror himself enjoys this new effort as he has other films like IT or Doctor Sleep, there could be a chance that we’ll see more King remakes coming from producer Jason Blum.
If that doesn’t sound like a dream team of horror, then you’re probably a more restrained horror fan who doesn’t let such news push them into a frenzy. Still, even if you’re not prone to hyperbole, the Stephen King/Jason Blum pairing is something that definitely will be worth keeping an eye on.
There’s no release date or production start date specified for Firestarter, but you can see Blumhouse’s remake magic at work with Black Christmas, which is currently in theaters. And if you’re looking for more of what’s coming to theaters in 2020, take a look at our release calendar for the coming year!
