The Boogeymandirector Rob Savage, the latest director to put Stephen King on the screen, recently discussed his desire to tackle another work by the iconichorrorauthor, the 1990 novella,The Langoliers.
The novella, part of King’sFour Past Midnightcollection, was previously adapted into a 1995 television mini-series by filmmaker Tom Holland. One ofKing’s lesser-known works,The Langolierstells the story of a group of airline passengers who awake to discover that something went amiss during the flight that caused them to be stuck in time itself, where they are pursued by monstrous creatures that eat the world of the past.
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Savage recently let slip on theKingcastpodcast that the novella is the next King project he’d like to tackle. “[I was recently asked] whichStephen King property I’d like to remake, and I saidThe Langoliers……I can’t say too much,” Savage said. However, Savage and King face one problem. “I mean, the rights are all tied up. It’s one of the ones I mentioned to King that I really wanted to do. After he saw [The Boogeyman], he emailed me saying, ‘We should work together again on something!’ and immediately I was like, ‘I really want to adaptThe Langoliers’and he was really enthusiastic about that. But I think the rights are all tied up, so we’re trying to [untie] them. I can’t say too much and it’s certainly not a real thing yet, but I always loved that short story.”
Savage goes on to praise King’s concept for the story and the possibilities it offers. “It’s so great and so creepy and it’s such a brilliant, simple ‘Why didn’t I think of that?!’ set-up with the plane. It’s so spooky,” Savage said. “I think there’s a definitively terrifying version of that [to be made]. As much as I enjoy the TV movie, that’s not it.”
The Langoliers, like many of King’s best works, relies on a careful examination of human nature during times of terror and duress, meaning it’s ample fodder for the big screen or perhaps even more aptly for the smaller one, where its themes, storylines, and characters can be developed and explored much in the way of other shows that happen to involve wayward flights likeLostorYellowjackets. With the recent success of horror-based streaming series likeStranger Things,HBO’sThe Last of Us, and newer King adaptations and remakes likeIT,audiences would likely be interested inThe Langoliers.
While the verdict is still out on the overall success ofSavage’sThe Boogeymanadaptation, also drawn from a shorter work, an enthusiastic thumbs up from the iconic horror author himself is a good sign. It bodes well for any future adaptations of King’s work by Savage.
