The Duffer Brothers’ busy post–Stranger Things schedule will include adapting a book by a pair of horror-novel titans.
On Wednesday the creators of the hit Netflix series announced a slate of five upcoming projects under their new Upside Down Pictures banner, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Among them is a TV adaptation of The Talisman, a 1984 novel by Stephen King and Peter Straub about a 12-year-old boy’s trek to find a cure for his mother’s cancer.
Though initial reception to the novel was mixed—Kirkus called it “pretentious, verbose,” with “a lot of King-style sentimentality and jokey vulgarity”—it became a massive bestseller, topping the New York Times bestseller list for 12 weeks and spawning a sequel, 2001’s Black House.
The series was first announced last year as being produced with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment company. But Wednesday’s Hollywood Reporter story notes that Stranger Things fans got a hint of what’s coming during the current season: “In one of the final scenes, Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) reads an excerpt from the book to girlfriend Max (Sadie Sink), as her fate remains up in the air heading into the final season.”
The latest announcement includes no details on the timing, cast, and crew of the Talisman series, but Ross and Matt Duffer’s statement on the deal suggests that they found the book’s story in keeping with the ethos of much of their work (including the King-like Stranger Things itself). They stated that they look for “stories that take place at that beautiful crossroads where the ordinary meets the extraordinary, where big spectacle co-exists with intimate character work, where heart wins out over cynicism.”
Mark Athitakis is a journalist in Phoenix who writes about books for Kirkus, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and elsewhere.
