Things Are Looking Up For The Firestarter Reboot

Stephen King is a renowned novelist with some seriously bad luck outside the book business. Many film and TV producers have tried to adapt his stories in the past, and each was the roll of the dice. In a fair world, given the quality King puts on paper, every adaptation of his novels should exude the excellence of the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter films. However, for every beloved classic such as Carrie and The Shining, there are also duds like Maximum Overdrive and Dreamcatcher. 

Lately, film producers have been trying to fix past mistakes with the works of King. It is a prominent example, and several upcoming movies and shows based on the author's properties include reboots of past attempts, including The Tommyknockers and Firestarter. While word of the latter has been floating around for more than a decade (via Variety), we finally have some news about a significant update in the film's production.

During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, producer Akiva Goldsman revealed a few choice nuggets of information. Not only is the script finally finished — Goldsman claims it is "closer to the novel in both incident and tone" — but shooting should begin within "12 weeks." Of course, that is 12 weeks as of the interview, which was held in mid April. If all goes according to plan, Firestarter production will ramp up in late June/early July.

If you never heard of Firestarter, the novel revolves around the father and daughter pair of Andy and Charlene "Charlie" McGee. While Andy (has minor telepathic abilities (that he can't use too much without suffering migraines and brain hemorrhages), Charlene has much more powerful pyrokinetic powers. In the novel, Andy and Charlene are on the run from a government organization known as The Shop, which created the drug that gave Andy and Charlene their powers. In 1984, Universal Pictures released a Firestarter adaptation that was burned by critics.

The 1984 original featured David Keith as Andy (credited as Andrew McGee in the film) and Drew Barrymore as Charlie, but few actors have been announced for the reboot. So far, we only know that Zac Efron will lead the movie as Andy, while Michael Greyeyes (Qaletaga Walker in Fear the Walking Dead) will play the Shop agent/hitman John Rainbird (via Slashfilm).