Stephen King's Firestarter: Movie adaptation on the way with Akiva Goldsman directing

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Kelly Rissman

US News Reporter

With the trailer for Stephen King’s It having broken records and The Dark Tower on the way, studios are jumping at the chance to adopt other classic works by the author.

Next up is Firestarter, King’s science fiction novel based around a young girl with pyrokinetic abilities and her father as they run away from an evil government body called The Shop.

According to Deadline, the new adaptation was announced at Overlook Film Festival by Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions.

Firestarter will be directed by Akiva Goldsman, who wrote an Oscar-winning screenplay for A Beautiful Mind and will direct Blumhouse’s upcoming supernatural horror, Stephanie.

Goldsman made his directorial debut with 2014’s critically panned Winter's Tale and will serve as writer and producer on The Dark Tower.

A film adaptation of Firestarter — starring Drew Barrymore, Heather Locklear, and Martin Sheen — was released in 1984, the author saying two years after release: “Firestarter is one of the worst [adaptations] of the bunch, even though in terms of story it's very close to the original. But it's flavourless; it's like cafeteria mashed potatoes.”

Recently, the trailer for the adaptation of It angered professional clowns, who said bringing Pennywise back into the public’s consciousness was “bad for business”.