Stephen King Sends Firestarter Reboot a “Hunka Hunka Burning Love” Ahead of Production Start

Thanks to the worldwide distribution of vaccines to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, a variety of movie and TV productions have been able to move forward in recent weeks, which includes a new adaptation of Stephen King‘s Firestarter gearing up for production, with King himself wishing the project luck in his signature style. While the novel has previously been adapted into a movie, this new take on the material comes from director Keith Thomas and will star Zac Efron. The previous adaptation famously starred Drew Barrymore as a young girl with telekinetic abilities, with it currently being unknown who will take over the iconic character for this new endeavor.

“I’m sending cast and crew a hunka hunka burning love,” King posted on Twitter alongside a post announcing the scheduled production start.

Over the course of his career, King has delivered hundreds of different stories in various mediums, dozens of which have gone on to inspire adaptations. Given how frequently adaptations of his works are announced and move forward, King doesn’t directly address all of them, so while this reaction is largely playful, getting any sort of acknowledgment from the author is more than some other adaptations get.

With the previous adaptation having earned a passionate following, director Thomas addressed that one way he aims to distinguish this new take from its predecessor is by being more faithful to the source material.

“It’s something I’ve thought a lot about,” Thomas shared with ComicBook.com. “And, certainly, when the project first came to me, I was very lucky in that the script by Scott Teems, who wrote the upcoming Halloween Kills, was just very, very good, and very rich. The material itself isn’t different, right? I mean, it’s the same book that this film is drawing from, the one the earlier film did. But what we’re leaning into from the book is different. That’s the angle where you can do something. So, for me, it was really leaning into more emotional aspects. It was leaning into parenthood and what that looks like, and then, how do you raise a child, especially a child with abilities like this. That was the place the script went and I thought that it was something that’s a little different than the original film.”

He added, “Also, the book’s super rich. There’s a lot of stuff that’s in the book that isn’t in the original film. There’s stuff in there that we’re using, that we’re going into. At the same time, I feel like, just for me, in terms of the films I’m interested in, I feel like there’s a visceral quality to the story that I didn’t see in the ’80s version, a rawness that I think is there in the book, that I certainly felt, that I’m really interested in diving into. And, luckily, I think everybody else involved feels the same way, that this is going to be … not only will it have the effects and you’re going to get to see all the stuff Charlie can do, which is fun, and cool, and exciting, but if we do it right, it’s not so much as dark as The Vigil, but you should come out of it emotional. If you do it right, it’s going to really hit that way.”

Stay tuned for details on the new Firestarter.

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