For the last few months, the upcoming remake of Stephen King's Firestarter has been a bit of a mystery. Produced by Blumhouse and Universal Pictures, the film went into production last year with Zac Efron cast as its lead, but for a long time it wasn't clear when exactly we would get to see it. Now that mystery has come to an explosive end, as not only has it been announced that the movie will be released on May 13 (both in theaters and on Peacock), but we also now have this spectacular trailer.
The movie is an adaptation of Stephen King's novel of the same name from 1980, and it centers on Charlie McGee (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) – a young girl with pyrokinetic abilities who is forced to go on the run with her father, Andy (Zac Efron), when agents from a government agency known as The Shop try to abduct her so that they can conduct experiments with her remarkable abilities. The man hunting them is a psychotic assassin named John Rainbird (Michael Greyeyes), and while he is hired by The Shop, he has his own sinister plans for the tiny firestarter.
Firestarter was previously adapted in 1984 by director Mark L. Lester, the film notably starring Drew Barrymore as the original Charlie McGee, and while it's not exactly regarded as one of the best Stephen King movies, it is most certainly one of the most faithful to its source material. Based on the footage that we see here, it looks like the remake is going to be changing some things (the sequence with Charlie in school, for example, looks like its wholly original), but there is also plenty in there that looks taken straight from the book.
One of the most exciting things about the Firestarter trailer is that it reveals some interesting casting that we didn't know about previously. For example, it looks like Robocop and That '70s Show star Kurtwood Smith is playing paranoid scientist Dr. Joseph Wanless, who is a character in the book fearful that Charlie's powers could one day be so great that she can crack the world in half.
It also looks like John Beasley has come aboard to play Irv Manders, a kindly stranger who takes Charlie and Andy into his home after finding them hitchhiking and provides them with temporary shelter and protection.
Also huge is the revelation that horror legend John Carpenter is composing the score for Firestarter along with collaborators Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies. In addition to being thrilling because Carpenter makes such fantastic movie music, it's also a fun Easter egg for those who know their Stephen King adaptation history. While the director famously made Christine back in 1983, prior to that he signed a deal to make the first film version of Firestarter – though that version of the production fell apart due to budget concerns.
Also co-starring Sydney Lemmon and Gloria Reuben, Firestarter will be in theaters and on Peacock in just a few months – and you can keep track of all of the Stephen King adaptations that are presently in the works by checking out our Upcoming Stephen King Movies and TV guide.
