The 71st annual Cannes Film Festival commenced earlier this week, and having already sold a piece of his oeuvre during the festivities, another Stephen King short story has officially gone off the market, The Gingerbread Girl.
Earlier this week, Netflix closed a deal for In the Tall Grass, a novella written by King and his son, fellow bestselling horror author, Joe Hill. Today, Deadline is reporting that The Gingerbread Girl, which was originally published in Esquire magazine, has been optioned by US production and distribution company, Brainstorm Media.
Frequent collaborator, Craig R. Baxley, who has helmed several other King adaptations, including Storm of the Century (1999), Kingdom Hospital (2004) and Rose Red (2002), will direct the film from a screenplay written by both he and the author.
In a secluded house on the loneliest stretch of New England, The Gingerbread Girl focuses on Emily, a woman who takes up running as a way to deal with the loss of her only daughter, Amy, having suffered crib death. Channelling her grief into a grueling running regimen, and avoiding contact with her husband and her father, Emily seems to be on the path to recovery until she makes the mistake of looking into the driveway of a man named Pickering.
It’s been a busy couple of weeks for Mr. King, as most recently, the “Master of Horror” saw his 1987 novel, The Tommyknockers, acquired by Universal Pictures, who won a bidding war against Netflix. There’s lots more where that came from, too, as a Pet Sematary remake is also brewing in development, while a Dark Tower TV series is said to be coming down the pipeline as well.
As for The Gingerbread Girl, it’s still early, early days, but we’ll be sure to let you know as soon as we learn more.
