“Fairy Tale” has just been released, and is already being filmed.
One of the great things about being a Stephen King fan is that we don’t have to wait so long between film adaptations. Whenever one premiere comes out, it’s quite normal that the next one will be just around the corner, and it often seems that new projects are announced regularly.
Take, for example, this week: “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone,” based on the novel of the same name by John Lee Hancock King, became available to Netflix subscribers yesterday, and today we received news that a film based on his latest novel “The Fairy Tale” has been released. Acquired for development from Universal Pictures.
In mid-September, it was announced that screenwriter and director Paul Greengrass would direct the adaptation of The Fairy Tale, and today Deadline reports that the feature being developed has found its application in a major studio. Trading reported that it was a “rolling auction” as different companies tried to buy the film, and Universal won the bid.
The story adds that Paul Greengrass’ past experience with Universal helped seal the deal, as the studio had previously contributed to the Bourne, United 93 and News Of The World series.
“Fairy Tale”, released on store shelves just a month ago, tells about a teenager named Charlie Reed, who lives in a small town in Illinois with his widowed alcoholic father. One day, walking down the street, Charlie hears a dog barking and sounds of distress and eventually saves the life of an elderly neighbor named Howard Bowditch, who falls down the stairs and breaks his leg while doing housework.
Feeling that he owes something to the universe for his father’s prayer that he stop drinking, the hero pursues Bowditch’s dog Radar while he is in the hospital, and becomes the guardian of the man while he recovers at home.
He begins to notice strange things about the former hermit, for example, ignorance of his own age and the presence of a safe with a bucket of gold pellets. Eventually, Charlie finds out the whole truth and takes him on an adventure in another world to try to save Radar’s life.
As the name suggests, “Fairy Tale” is more fantasy than horror, a genre that Stephen King has previously explored in books such as “Eyes of the Dragon”, “Talisman” (currently being released as a Netflix series). The Dark Tower series.
This will be the first time Paul Greengrass adapts Stephen King, but the author supports him because he is a fan. When Greengrass’ participation was first announced, King made a brief but positive statement, saying: Needless to say, I’m a fan of Paul Greengrass and I think he’s a great fit for this movie.
A fairy tale supported by a major studio such as Universal Pictures is exciting, given the maximum scale of the story, but at the moment it is unknown how fast it will develop. If we are lucky, they will quickly become a watch and priority for the studio, and if that happens, we will be able to see the film in theaters during the 2024 calendar year.
