Russell Crowe Circling Adaptation Of Stephen King’s Revival; Josh Boone Talks New Mutants

Josh Boone is a director in demand. Since breaking onto the scene with a heart-wrenching adaptation of John Green’s equally heart-wrenching novel The Fault in Our Stars, Boone has found himself attached to a whole host of brewing projects.

Perhaps the one in-development feature to garner the most attention is New Mutants, the X-Men spinoff reportedly set to enter production in early 2017. But Josh Boone is also a longtime fan and friend of the illustrious Stephen King, and has been linked to adaptations of both The Stand and Revival, a 2014 page-turner of a charismatic preacher gone rogue. It appears the latter is much closer to the starting line and sure enough, Boone has confirmed that he plans to jump-start Revival after wrapping work on New Mutants.

Creative Screenwriting caught up with the writer-director just recently, and while discussing his relationship with Stephen King, Boone revealed that Russell Crowe is in line to join Revival.

I have a good relationship with Stephen King, so when I wanted to adapt his novel Revival I really just went and asked him. I was able to write it in a very pleasant bubble and we attached Russell Crowe. I plan to make that right after New Mutants.

So far, the only other casting nugget for Boone’s adaptation involves one Samuel L. Jackson, who was reportedly being eyed for that aforementioned role of Reverend Charles Jacobs.

Further in the interview, talk inevitably turned toward the upcoming New Mutants spinoff, and though he refrains from divulging any new details, Boone compared how the process of studio filmmaking differs from his past experiences behind the camera.

New Mutants is different – when you work with a studio, you’re not in a bubble. The process of writing becomes a much different thing because you have so many people who have an opinion since the movie is so expensive.

It’s a balance of getting to do things in a bubble, which I’d say is the best way of writing anything, and then having to negotiate all the politics of studio filmmaking, which is its own special beast. With New Mutants, we wrote a few drafts, and I brought in Scott Neustadter and Mike Weber, who are the friends of mine that adapted The Fault in Our Stars, to do a draft while we did something else.

New Mutants stands as the current priority for Josh Boone, but fans of Stephen King’s Revival can rest assured that the adaptation is beginning to make serious headway.