Stephen King’s Firestarter Reboot Adds Michael Greyeyes

The latest performer to join the cast of Blumhouse Productions’ new take on Stephen King‘s Firestarter is Michael Greyeyes, who will be playing the part of Rainbird in the project. The new film is being directed by Keith Thomas, while it was confirmed last fall that Zac Efron would be starring in the project, who plays Andy, the father of the child with telekinetic abilities. However, it has not yet been confirmed who would be playing the young girl, with Drew Barrymore having played the character in the original 1984 movie. George C. Scott played the part of Rainbird in that previous adaptation.

Deadline describes the character of Rainbird as “a relentless powerful man who has been pushed into a violent life.”

King’s official site describes the story, “The Department of Scientific Intelligence (aka ‘The Shop’) never anticipated that two participants in their research program would marry and have a child. Charlie McGee inherited pyrokinetic powers from her parents, who had been given a low-grade hallucinogen called ‘Lot Six’ while at college. Now the government is trying to capture young Charlie and harness her powerful firestarting skills as a weapon.”

A key component of Stephen King adaptations is that, over the decades, some lean more heavily into the source material while others are only loose interpretations, with this upcoming take being a new adaptation of the original novel as opposed to being a remake of the previous movie. This will assuredly result in some differences from what fans across the board will be expecting.

Thomas previously detailed what fans can expect from the endeavor.

“It’s a new adaptation of the book,” Thomas shared with Zavvi. “When [producer] Jason [Blum] pitched it to me it was exciting, as that’s one of my favorite Stephen King novels, and whilst I really like the 1980s film, I felt we could do something new. The screenplay is by Scott Teems who wrote the upcoming Halloween Kills, it’s an amazing script. It has everything you would want; people’s heads catching fire and their faces melting off, and a dad and daughter on the run trying to survive being chased in this heightened tense experience. We are hoping to film it this year, and it will be a lot of fun.”

While King himself typically keeps his distance from adaptations of his work, Thomas confirmed, “He watched The Vigil, approved me as director, and he read the script from the early stages, and he’s very happy with it. He’s excited for it, he’s there the whole way.”

Stay tuned for details on the new Firestarter adaptation.

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