The Langoliers of Hollywood haven’t wavered in their quest to gobble up every Stephen King story in this cinematic renaissance of the horror author’s work. This year alone, we’ve reported on upcoming adaptations of Salem’s Lot, Lisey’s Story, The Eyes Of The Dragon, and “Rest Stop,” as well as the latest developments in HBO’s The Outsider, Amazon’s The Dark Tower, and CBS All Access’ The Stand. There’s also Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark director André Øvredal’s take on The Long Walk, a novel collected in The Bachman Books, a collection of stories King wrote under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. The Long Walk is excellent, but the rest of the Bachman books? Let’s just say there’s a reason that Arnold Schwarzenegger’s The Running Man is more beloved than its source material. Well, another book from that collection has been optioned, and it has us thinking that the King well might be running dry.
Radio Cantilo reports (via Bloody Disgusting) that an adaptation of Roadwork, a short novel first published in 1981, is coming from It director Andy Muschietti and his producing partner/sister Barbara Muschietti. Prolific Argentine director Pablo Trapero is apparently slated to helm the project. “It’s a fantastic script,” Barbara said. “We hope to start shooting at the beginning of next year.”
Hey, we’re all about pleasant surprises, especially when it comes to King adaptations, but Roadwork is a hard sell. This story of a shitty, self-destructive dude who fashions himself into a one-man army when the local authorities try to bulldoze his home and community is as self-righteous as it is unpleasant. Perhaps there’s resonance to be found in updating the story for the Trump era? Nobody loves a bureaucracy in this day and age.
As such, we remain cautiously optimistic. Just please leave Rage where it is, though.