The Boogeyman Director Rob Savage Gives an Update on The Langoliers
The novella has been adapted once before, in a 1995 TV miniseries.
The Boogeyman director Rob Savage seems confident that his take on Stephen King's The Langoliers has a pretty good chance of getting off the ground. The short story, published as part of the Four Past Midnight anthology in 1990, centers on powerful, cosmic beings that literally eat time. After the day is over, The Langoliers come. They consume everything, presumably making time travel impossible as the past is literally swallowed up. In the story, a handful of passengers on a jet wake up to discover that everyone else on the plane is gone, and they're running out of time.
ABC adapted The Langoliers into a TV miniseries in 1995. One of a number of big TV events based on King's work during that era (others include It and The Tommyknockers), The Langoliers took a lot of liberties with the source material and scored only middling reviews with both critics, and fans of King's original work.
"There's a bit of naughtiness when it comes to the rights, but I think hopefully we'll be able to sort it out," Savage told ComicBook.com's Chris Killian. "We've got such a great idea for developing that one out from the short story. Of all the ones in King's work that have been adapted, I don't think it's ever been done justice to. It plays with ideas that I've never seen explored in a horror movie. The idea of time, and decaying time, and these creatures that are eating the time left behind -- there's such a great, cosmic horror movie to be made there that lends itself so well to film. Film is all about stretching and compressing time, and you can do so many great, playful things in that space that go beyond what's there in the novella. I'm so excited about that one. I think that one stands a good shot of happening."
Savage, who also directed 2020's Host and 2021's Dashcam, was speaking in support of the home release of Boogeyman, also based on a King story. In the movie, high school student Sadie Harper (Sophie Thatcher, Yellowjackets) and her younger sister Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair, Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi) are reeling from the recent death of their mother and aren't getting much support from their father, Will (Chris Messina, Birds of Prey), a therapist who is dealing with his own pain. When a desperate patient (David Dastmalchian, Oppenheimer) unexpectedly shows up at their home seeking help, he leaves behind a terrifying supernatural entity that preys on families and feeds on the suffering of its victims.
The Boogeyman is on Digital now and comes to Blu-ray and DVD 10/10.