Strange Darling writer and director JT Mollner is quickly joining an exclusive list of filmmakers who have adapted multiple Stephen King stories. Mollner wrote the screenplay for this year’s upcoming film, The Long Walk, directed by Francis Lawrence and based on King’s darkest dystopian tale, written under his pseudonym Richard Bachman in 1979. Now, Mollner is taking on another fan-favorite King story that has never been adapted before: the psychological horror survival story The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mollner is set to write and direct the adaptation for Lionsgate.
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Lionsgate is also behind the September release of The Long Walk, which has a scheduled panel in Hall H at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. The Long Walk and Strange Darling producer Roy Lee is also reuniting with Mollner and the film studio on the new project.
“JT is a filmmaker we believe has a bright future,” said Lionsgate Motion Picture Group president Erin Westerman. “Throughout his work, he creates characters, and especially young characters, that are so compelling, heartbreaking, and emotional that they pop off the screen. And of course, that’s what Stephen King does on the page as well. The story of survival and perseverance in The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is timeless. We’ve loved this tale for a long time, and JT is the perfect choice to adapt and direct this King fan favorite.”
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is One of Stephen King’s Most Intense Stories
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is an intense wilderness survival story centered on nine-year-old Trisha McFarland, who becomes lost in the woods after attempting to avoid her bickering family during a hike. Her supplies are limited, including her Walkman radio, which she uses to listen to baseball games to keep her company. As the young girl struggles to survive, her mental and physical condition deteriorates due to thirst, hunger, injuries, and eventually, pneumonia, causing vivid hallucinations. One of those hallucinations includes Boston Red Sox player Tom Gordon, Trisha’s baseball hero, who acts as a guide and a symbol of hope for Trisha as she imagines conversations with him. The story takes on a psychological horror aspect as Trisha becomes convinced she is being hunted by a malevolent entity she refers to as the “God of the Lost.”
Adaptations of The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon have been in development before, but attempts by filmmakers like the late George A. Romero and Lynne Ramsay (We Need to Talk About Kevin) stalled before getting to the big screen.
The Long Walk opens in theaters on September 12th.
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