Stranger Things Creators Offer Update on Stephen King’s The Talisman Adaptation

When Stranger Things first premiered in the summer of 2016, creators Ross and Matt Duffer frequently talked about their two big influences, the two Steves, Steven Spielberg and Stephen King. The brothers have the chance to take their love for King/Spielberg to the next level however, having previously become attached to a project that seems almost too perfect, an adaptation of The Talisman. In a new interview, the pair offered an update on the progress of the series. Speaking with Variety, they were asked about how it’s been working on a project that has both of their heroes attached. “It’s amazing,” Matt Duffer said. “We’ve had one meeting with Steven Spielberg and the other producers. It’s really early right now, we have an outline for the first episode.”

Ross Duffer adds, “I think with Spielberg and really what is so inspiring is how much he loves the joy of storytelling, specifically with this, the story of The Talisman, again there’s a lot of supernatural things, there’s a werewolf, there’s a lot of exciting things that are going on, but at its core it’s really about a mother and her son and their relationship and their love for one another.; Hopefully, the goal of it is to make sure that really carries the series, we’re really excited about it.”

At the height of both Spielberg and King’s prowess in the 1980s, the Academy Award-winning director secured the rights to Stephen King and Peter Straub’s The Talisman a full two years before it was published. Several attempts were made over that time to get it turned into a feature film, but now with The Duffer Bros. and Stranger Things writer/EP Curtis Gwinn attached to the project, it seems like it could finally happen.

The series is in the works at Netflix with Paramount Television Studios also involved in the production. Gwinn will serve as the showrunner for the series which has Spielberg and the Duffers acting as executive producers. 

The official synopsis for the book, according to King’s website, reads as follows: “Twelve-year-old Jack Sawyer embarks on an epic quest–a walk from the seacoast of New Hampshire to the California coast–to find the talisman that will save his dying mother’s life. Jack’s journey takes him into the Territories, a parallel medieval universe, where most people from his own universe have analogs called ‘twinners.’ The queen of the Territories, Jack’s mother’s twinner, is also dying.” A sequel, titled Black House, was released in 2001 and saw King draw ties between the book and his famous The Dark Tower series.