Stephen King’s Cell Moving to the Small Screen?
A few years ago, Eli Roth was lined up to direct a film adaptation of Stephen King’s Cell, the horror novel where a cell phone signal turns people into mindless killers. Unfortunately, the project got delayed for a while (possibly due to the release of the similarly-themed indie film The Signal) and Roth eventually left the project due to creative differences. Now this week we have news that The Weinsteins have decided to shop the book around to TV networks instead.
According to Fangoria, writer-director John Harrison is currently in the midst of adapting the book into a 4-hour mini-series. He may or may not direct the project himself, but seems very excited about it either way. Harrison previously wrote and directed the Dune mini-series and more recently did Clive Barker’s Book of Blood, but back in 1990 he directed Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, which is considered to be the official successor to Creepshow and Creepshow 2. I’ve been meaning to read Cell for a while now since it’s one of the only recent Stephen King books to really catch my interest. What do you think, can you see this as a mini-series on network TV? Are you sad to see Eli Roth leave the project?
Comments (9)
I don’t want to see this on network TV, but it’s better than not at all.
At this point, I’m wondering if Roth just wasn’t up to the job. Seems everything he’s rumored to be in charge of falls by the wayside when a chance for him to lick QT’s boots pops up.
I shouldn’t say that– I like Eli Roth. It just takes him forever to do anything on his own. He’s a horror director, not Kubrick or Scorsese– he needs to start putting more stuff out there.
Posted by Jon Rocks on July 14th, 2009That’s disapointing, I like king a lot and I thing his work deserves better than the small screen. Then again, this is basicly a zombie story, and the last thing the world needs is another frickin zombie flick.
Posted by MJS on July 14th, 2009It may be a zombie movie, but it’s got that King twist that makes it different enough to be worth watching/reading.
Posted by Paul on July 14th, 2009The book actually has a chance of not being just another shitty zomcom.
Sad that no one let Roth take a crack at this..
Posted by Ryan M. on July 15th, 2009I think Stephen King stories work better as mini-series. It just seems that so much of the story gets trimmed or changed when they try to squeeze a Stephen King story into a 2 hour movie.
Posted by Max3D on July 15th, 2009Just listened to this one on audiobook recently. I can see this one playing out just fine on the small screen, however, the gore that plays so much into this story (or any King story for that matter) will be sorely missed.
Posted by Aaron on July 15th, 2009The Signal is actually a pretty decent movie. Almost nothing like Cell except for a loosely based premise.
Posted by Dave on July 15th, 2009Hey, I read this book! It’s decent overall, though I thought the ending sucks.
Posted by joe on July 16th, 2009Other than maybe The Shining, The Mist, and a few others, I think Kings’ work translates well to the small screen mini-series format.
The Stand, It, Storm of the Century and The Tommyknockers come to mind as good examples of small screen King. I remember being scared of Salem’s Lot as a kid.
I read Cell and it was good. I don’t care the way he ends his stories sometimes, but I liked the ending in this book. This was the first King book I read in a long time, probably since The Stand. I have never read the Dark Tower series and hope to someday.
I can recommend Cell Sean, I also recommend The Stand graphic novel series that came out recently.
Posted by Joe Pug on July 16th, 2009Leave a Reply