Christine Reboot Director Compares Stephen King Adaptation to The Shining

Two masters of horror collided back in 1983 when director John Carpenter adapted the Stephen King novel Christine into a feature film, and while that experience has its fans, director of the upcoming adaptation of the novel Bryan Fuller recently teased he’ll be more faithful to the source material, which includes honoring much more of the supernatural elements of the story. He even compared his take on the material to the events of King’s The Shining, which featured the Overlook Hotel and the mystical connection it had with caretakers over the years. The new Christine doesn’t yet have a release date.

“This is much more beholden to the concept of ‘The Overlook on wheels,’ or the vampiric relationship between the car and Arnie,” Fuller shared with The Kingcast podcast.

In Christine, a 1958 Plymouth Fury is restored by a teenager and comes to life on its own to seek revenge against anyone who torments its new owner. Fuller pointed out that the original film was devoid of the car’s original owner, Roland LeBay, whose obsession with the car is mirrored and manifested in the Arnie character years later.

Another element that the Carpenter adaptation was lacking was the sexuality of the love triangle between Arnie, best friend Dennis, and Arnie’s newfound girlfriend Leigh. Of embracing those elements, Fuller jokingly confirmed that “our version of Christine will be horny as hell.”

This new take on the story is being developed by Blumhouse Productions, who also developed a new adaptation of King’s Firestarter, which will star Zac Efron, Ryan Keira Armstrong, Sydney Lemmon, Michael Greyeyes, and Gloria Reuben and comes from director Keith Thomas.

While Blumhouse has a number of exciting King projects on the horizon, producer Jason Blum did admit earlier this year that he had hoped to develop an adaptation of King’s The Dead Zone, though the studio wasn’t able to obtain the rights to that project.

“We didn’t get it, but I’d love to do The Dead Zone. That would be cool, to reboot that in some way would be cool,” Blum confirmed with ComicBook.com. “We don’t have it, I know we don’t have it. It’s sad that we don’t have it but we don’t.”  

Stay tuned for details on the new Christine.

Are you looking forward to the new movie? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!