Jason Blum has become one of the go-to producers when it comes to horror movies, and Blumhouse has a number of big movies currently in development. As you would expect, when it comes to the dark side of cinema there is one author’s work that any horror producer wants on their slate; Stephen King. While Blumhouse is currently producing a new adaptation of King’s Firestarter and Christine, Jason Blum recently revealed that there is one of the master of horror’s novels that he wished he could have developed, and that would be the 1979 story, The Dead Zone.
Like many of King’s best known novels, The Dead Zone has already been brought to screens in two previous iterations. David Cronenberg’s 1983 movie featured a stellar performance by Christopher Walken in the lead role of Johnny Smith, a man who suffers a near fatal car accident that puts him in a coma for five years, and as a result of brain damage, he awakes with the ability to see a person’s future when he touches them. In addition to the film, the novel also provided the premise for the 2002, six-season series that saw Anthony Michael Hall take over the role.
Speaking with ComicBook.com, Blum said, “We didn’t get it, but I’d love to do The Dead Zone. That would be cool, to reboot that in some way would be cool. We don’t have it, I know we don’t have it. It’s sad that we don’t have it but we don’t.”
From the comments, it seems that Blumhouse has attempted to gain the rights to remake The Dead Zone but has clearly been denied…for now. However, we know the landscape of the industry changes quite quickly, so there is nothing to suggest that Jason Blum won’t get his wish sometime in the future. For now though, Blum has his two in production King adaptations to focus on alongside the many other upcoming movies and series that his company is involved in such as Halloween Kills, which hits theaters and Peacock on October 15th.
Jason Blum serves as producer on the new version of Firestarter, starring Zac Efron, Ryan Keira Armstrong, Sydney Lemmon, Michael Greyeyes, and Gloria Reuben in the story of a young girl being tracked by the government for her pyrokinetic capabilities. The movie wrapped filming in July, but there is currently no release date for the film. The titular character was famously played by Drew Barrymore in the 1984 adaptation of the novel, which also starred George C. Scott and David Keith and while the film was badly received by critics and only made a little more than its $12 million budget, the remake can hopefully avoid the “boring” tag that its predecessor was lumbered with.
Blumhouse’s other Stephen King remake is Christine, the story of the murderous 1958 Plymouth Fury that was originally adapted for screen by John Carpenter in1983. Unlike Firestarter, Christine managed to pull in double its $10 million budget and gained mostly positive reviews from the critics, since going on to become one of the most loved King adaptations of the decade and a cult classic. The Bryan Fuller scripted remake will probably have a tough task taking over the crown from Carpenter’s movie when it finally arrives, but who is to say we can’t love two versions of the most cited possessed automobile in cinema history. This news comes to us from ComicBook.com.