It’s been almost six months since a Stephen King adaptation graced our screens, so we were about due, given how voraciously Hollywood loves to adapt the horror icon’s back catalogue.
The last project out of the gate was Epix’s period-set series Chapelwaite, but next up is Blumhouse’s Firestarter, which has also been announced for a simultaneous day-and-date debut in theaters and on Paramount Plus. Keith Thomas directs the latest version of the story with a script from Scott Teems, and there’s no shortage of pyrokinesis on display in the footage.
Zac Efron is comfortably the biggest name in the cast, playing the father of a young daughter who develops the mysterious ability, which piques the intention of a shady government agency known as The Shop, who make it their mission to hunt down, capture, and ultimately control the girl.
At the very least, we know Firestarter will live up to its title, because there are in fact a handful of fires being started in the trailer, so nobody’s going to sue Blumhouse or Paramount for false advertising. The update of the 1984 feature comes to theaters and streaming on May 13, and we’ll be curious to see how it fares hitting multiplexes one week after Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.