The latest installment of the long-running film franchise based on Stephen King’s The Children of the Corn has wrapped production in Australia, only slightly delayed by the novel coronavirus pandemic that brought most of show business to a halt for the last three months. The film, from Equilibrium director Kurt Wimmer, is a return to the source material, adapting the same short story that served as the basis for the original film in 1984. Following the success of that movie, Children of the Corn earned nine sequels — which ran all the way up until 2018. While only Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice got a theatrical run, the series is one a rare example of a title that had direct-to-video sequels released to VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, and streaming digital video, all in real time as the series unfolded.
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Producers spilled details to Variety, assuring the trade that they had taken extraordinary steps to keep the set saf for the cast and crew. They also announced the film’s stars, Elena Kampouris, Kate Moyer, Callan Mulvey, and Bruce Spence. Fans will remember Mulvey as Anatoli Knyazev in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and the villainous Jack Rollins in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Endgame. Spence appeared in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, while the younger cast members, Kampouris and Moyer, appeared in My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 and Holly Hobbie, respectively. Moyer also had a small, uncredited role in IT, while Kampouris is expected to star in Netflix’s forthcoming adaptation of the Mark Millar comic Jupiter’s Legacy.
Producer Lucas Foster told Variety this version has “almost nothing to do with” the 1984 movie. “We went back to the [King] story and free-associated from there,” he said.
Per the report, the film “describes the events leading up to, and including, the massacre of the adults of a small town in Nebraska by their children, after the adults’ irresponsibility ruins the crop and the children’s future.”
That last bit is ripe for political commentary, no doubt.
Stephen King’s official website describes the original short story, “Burt and Vicky are traveling through Nebraska on their way to California on a vacation meant to save their failing marriage. After being involved in an accident in which they run over a young boy who ran into the road, they take the body to Gaitlin, a small isolated community nearby. The story centers on their encounters with the strange citizens of Gaitlin and the entity they call ‘He Who Walks Behind the Rows.’”
A number of Stephen King stories are at various stages of adaptation in Hollywood following the massive success of IT. In many cases, including this one, even stories that have already been adapted to film are getting new ones. New takes on stories like The Stand, Salem’s Lot, and The Tommyknockers are all in various stages of development.
No matter what the adaptation might be, King typically supports his stories being turned into movies and TV series, leaving us to wonder what his thoughts are on the current reboot of Children of the Corn. Back in 2016, the author shared his support for the original movie, but admitted he didn’t enjoy its many sequels.
“I guess there are a number of pictures that I feel like, a little bit like, yuck,” King shared with Deadline. “There’s one, Graveyard Shift, that was made in the ’80s. Just kind of a quick exploitation picture. I could do without all of the Children of the Corn sequels. I actually like the original pretty well. I thought they did a pretty good job on that. Of the smaller pictures, the best one is probably Cujo, with Dee Wallace.”
Stay tuned for details on the new Children of the Corn.
