Producer Jason Blum is getting heavy into the Stephen King adaptation game. After years of development, Blumhouse Productions' upcoming remake of Firestarter has finally entered production, and is currently in principal photography up in Canada, but the company isn't just stopping there. Instead, Blum has apparently gotten his hands on another classic King tome, and now it has been announced that a remake of Christine is in the works.
News of this development comes to us from Deadline, which adds the exciting news that Bryan Fuller – best known for TV series including Hannibal, Pushing Daisies, and Dead Like Me – is handling the screenplay and is attached to direct. In addition to Jason Blum, filmmaker Vincenzo Natali is also producing, having previously been involved with Stephen King projects including the 2019 feature In The Tall Grass and two episodes of the recent The Stand miniseries. Should all go according to plan, it will be the third King movie from Blumhouse, as the company first made Mercy (an adaptation of the short story "Gramma") in 2014.
Of course, what's particularly notable about this development is the fact that we have already seen a big screen version of Christine, and one made by a true Master of Horror. John Carpenter's film from 1983 is still regarded as a classic, and it's a feature that you can watch today and still wonder how the filmmakers were able to pull off some of the cinema magic. There are some key deviations that the adaptation makes from Stephen King's book – including the removal of a key antagonist, and the ways that the titular car murders people she doesn't like – so it will be interesting to see if this new effort either hones closer to the source material, or attempts to be a total reinvention of the story. The trade report does say that the story is going to stick to being set in the 1980s.
First published in the spring of 1983, Christine tells the story of a loser teenager named Arnie Cunningham who sees his life completely change when he one day discovers a junked 1958 Plymouth Fury. Instantly falling in love with the car, he dedicates himself to refurbishing it to its former glory – but the larger truth in the story is that Christine is an evil machine that is not only intensely possessive, but also a dangerous corrupting force. It becomes the responsibility of his best friend, Dennis Guilder, and his girlfriend, Leigh Cabot, to stop the sinister vehicle before it is too late.
Right now this remake of Christine is very much in the earliest stages, but there's no denying that it's an exciting development given all of the talent involved. Given our anticipation, you can be sure that we'll have more updates for you as they continue to pop up. In the meantime, to check our all of the King adaptations that are currently in the works, be sure to check out our Upcoming Stephen King Movies And TV guide.
