Just earlier this week, audiences learned that the upcoming Stephen King adaptation Mr. Harrigan's Phone would be coming to Netflix in October, with today bringing us our first official look at the project. Based on the short story of the same name, the story comes from the anthology If It Bleeds and was written and directed by John Lee Hancock. With the source material only being 80 pages, this forced Hancock to expand on elements only hinted at in the story, which also meant creating concepts for King's iconic world. Check out the first photos from Mr. Harrigan's Phone below before it hits Netflix on October 5th.
The film is described, "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."
Hancock explained of the experience to Netflix, "Because it's a novella and it's only 80-something pages, [you have] to jump in and grab onto thematically what I think he's trying to say and activate some of it into scenes that aren't necessarily all in the novella."
He added, "You finish a script and you realize you've got to send it to Stephen, and you're going to get a thumbs up or a thumbs down ... You go, 'Oh, my God, Stephen King's reading my script. I hope he likes it.'"
Given that the film takes place in the 2000s, this presented another unexpected challenge, which was the era-appropriate production design.
"[Assistant Jack Kramer] was a real tech whiz growing up. And he was one of those guys that would jailbreak phones and sell them on eBay," the director explained. "And he actually is from Connecticut where we shot. He had it all at his house there, which was only like 45 minutes away. And so prop said, 'Do you have any?' And he goes, 'I got boxes of it.'"
While it might be inspired by King's works, the director also detailed how the story falls more in line with the author's more touching works than his unsettling stories.
"More than anything, it's about an odd relationship between a billionaire in his 80s and a [young man] and the bonds of friendship, and how far will you go for a friend?" Hancock confessed. "Do you like Shawshank Redemption, do you like Stand By Me, do you like Green Mile, do you like a ton of other Stephen King? ... My take on it was, it's in the fashion of Brothers Grimm. It's a cautionary fairy tale in a way."
Mr. Harrigan's Phone hits Netflix on October 5th.
