Not a week goes by that some Stephen King story doesn’t pop up online. Either it’s THE DARK TOWER and its endless troubles, THE STAND and its search for a director or any other number of remakes underway. Today, we get to talk about a King book that isn’t as well known but is heading to theaters nonetheless.
Variety says that King’s book Rose Madder is being adapted into a feature film. Palomar Pictures (the folks behind BROTHERS and, most recently, KILLER ELITE) will be putting the film together with Gosvenor Park. Naomi Sheridan (Jim’s daughter) has written the script which they plan to shoot within the next 18 months.
The book is a smaller King affair. Well, small in relation to the end of the world, monster clowns or the search for a mythical magic tower. Here’s a summary of the novel:
Relentlessly paced and brilliantly orchestrated, this cat-and-mouse game of a novel is one of King’s most engrossing and topical horror stories. At the center of the action is heroine Rose McClendon, a battered wife who starts life anew by leaving her police officer husband, a consummately cruel man depicted by King as a paragon of evil. Crowded with character and incident, the novel builds to a nearly apocalyptic conclusion that combines the best of King’s long novels – the breadth of vision of The Stand, for example – with the focused plot and careful psychological portraiture of Dolores Claiborne. The story of Rose’s joyous growth from tortured wife (her persecution gruesomely but realistically portrayed) to independent woman alternates with the terrifying details of her husband’s deliberate pursuit to create unflagging tension. The book is a phantasmagorical roller-coaster ride, peopled by a broad array of indelibly characterized men and women and fueled by an air of danger that is immediate and overwhelming.
Aside from MADDER, Palomar and Gosvenor Park are working on two other projects. They’re remaking 2010 French heist film JOSEPH AND THE GIRL and the 2001 Norwegian film ELLIOT. JOSEPH AND THE GIRL will be directed by Gary McKendry. As for ELLIOT, it’s got three trustworthy writers attached: Jay Roach, Larry Stuckey and Tom McCarthy.
But back to King. What’s the next King novel you’d like to see adapted? Is there anything left?
