Mr. Harrigan's Phone Trailer: Netflix's New Stephen King Adaptation Arrives
Ahead of the film's premiere this Halloween season, Netflix has debuted the first official trailer for Mr. Harrigan's Phone, the latest Stephen King adaptation from the streamer. John Lee Hancock wrote and directed the new movie, based on King's novella from the If It Bleeds collection, which stars Jaeden Martell of IT fame alongside Invasion of the Body Snatchers' star Donald Sutherland. Mr. Harrigan's Phone will be debuting on Netflix on October 5th, arriving along with a slew of other programming designed for subscribers to dig into for spooky season. Check it out in the player below!
Stephen King, ever-present to tweet his thoughts on movies and shows (though seldom one to call out a bad adaptation), previously had high praise for an early cut he saw of the movie, tweeting this summer: "I have seen a close-to-finished cut of MR. HARRIGAN'S PHONE, written and directed by John Lee Hancock, and it's nothing short of brilliant. Donald Sutherland, Jaeden Martell. Netflix. This fall." Mr. Harrigan's Phone was produced by Blumhouse and Ryan Murphy. The film joins a series of other King adaptations on Netflix including Gerald's Game (directed by Mike Flanagan), 1922 (directed by Zak Hilditch), and In the Tall Grass (directed by Vincenzo Natali).
Mr. Harrigan's Phone is described as follows by Netflix: "When Craig, a young boy living in a small town (Jaeden Martell) befriends Mr. Harrigan, an older, reclusive billionaire (Donald Sutherland), the two begin to form an unlikely bond over their love of books and reading. But when Mr. Harrigan sadly passes away, Craig discovers that not everything is dead and gone and strangely finds himself able to communicate with his friend from the grave through the iPhone in this supernatural coming-of-age story that shows that certain connections are never lost."
Mr. Harrigan's Phone also stars Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Joe Tippett, Cyrus Arnold, Colin O'Brien, Thomas Francis Murphy, and Peggy J. Scott.
As opposed to other Stephen King books which have their rights snatched up for adaptation as one, If It Bleeds had the rights to all four of its stories split up across multiple parties, though Netflix will be home to three out of them. In addition to Mr. Harrigan's Phone, the story "Rat" has been picked up by Ben Stiller who will apparently produce, direct, and star; and "The Life Of Chuck" has been picked up by Darren Aronofsky's Protozoa, currently only attached to produce the adaptation. The titular "If It Bleeds" story has not seemingly been optioned by a production company as of yet.