Stephen King’s Firestarter Adds Fear the Walking Dead Star

Earlier this month, Blumhouse released the exciting information that American Horror Story star Ryan Kiera Armstrong had scored the lead role in the upcoming adaptation of Stephen King‘s Firestarter, with Deadline confirming today that Fear the Walking Dead, Succession, and Helstrom star Sydney Lemmon has joined the picture, playing the mother to Armstrong’s Charlie. Also starring in the film will be Zac Efron, Gloria Reuben, and Michael Greyeyes, with Efron playing Charlie’s father, and the film being directed by Keith Thomas from a script by Scott Teems. The new Firestarter doesn’t currently have a release date and likely won’t hit theaters until 2022.

The new film focuses on a young girl with pyrokinetic abilities, as the government pursues her in hopes of unlocking the key to her powers. The novel was previously adapted into a film in 1984, which starred Drew Barrymore, George C. Scott, and David Keith.

Firestarter is only the latest King novel that is getting a contemporary remake, following in the suit of IT and Pet Sematary, both of which earned adaptations years ago and were revived for modern audiences.

Earlier this year, Thomas expressed how his take on the concept would both honor the previous film and also the 1984 film.

“It’s something I’ve thought a lot about,” Thomas explained to 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 movie? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars.