Another New Stephen King Adaptation Is Now In The Works

With day-to-day life currently seeming like one of his more apocalyptic novels, Stephen King continues to provide a library of titles that are ripe for adaptation. After the box office success of the IT series, and the other major adaptations of the last few years, we’re already looking forward to new takes on ‘Salem’s Lot, The Tommyknockers and The Stand, to name just a few. The latest King book to get a screen adaptation has now been announced though and it’s his 1999 novella The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.

For those not aware, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon follows Trisha, a preteen girl who gets lost in the Appalachian Trail while on a family hike. As she tries to find her way to safety, Trisha is comforted by listening to baseball games on her Walkman, and imagining Boston Red Sox pitcher Tom Gordon. Over time, her survival story takes a seemingly supernatural turn as she discovers a potential entity stalking her in the woods.

It’s a fairly slight tale, although one rich with the psychological realism that King brings to his best fiction, and offers a compelling plot that’s been banded around for a film adaptation for a long time. George A. Romero was attached to develop the book for the screen, but was unable to get the project off the ground before his death. In the last year or so, interest in adapting Tom Gordon came around again, with Romero’s production company still attached.

It now seems that the project is getting the go-ahead, with Village Roadshow optioning the story, and Romero’s wife Christine producing alongside Living Dead Films, as well as Stampede Ventures, Origin Story and Vertigo Entertainment. The latter company’s producer, Roy Lee, was also involved in adapting IT and Doctor Sleep. Christy Hall is attached to direct, meanwhile, having previously written and produced the Netflix series I Am Not Okay with This.

While it’s currently unclear when we might see The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, there’s a chance that the Netflix connections will mean a possible premiere on the service, who’ve also served up adaptations of Gerald’s Game, 1922 and In the Tall Grass in recent years. However, things are still at an early stage and in the meantime, we’ll have plenty of Stephen King movies and television series to enjoy, including a a new Firestarter film and a spinoff series from The Shining.