Every Stephen King Movie and TV Show in Development

Who doesn't love a good Stephen King film or TV adaptation? Here's a working list of all the upcoming King shows and movies in development!

The Lists

We live in an exciting, depending on how you feel about book adaptations. If you love them, then these have probably been some of the best years of your life. You grew up loving genre books, maybe Stephen King's horror classics specifically, and now you get to watch the great stories of your childhood play out on screen. If you hate book adaptations and think those stories are holy, don't hate the messenger. I just get paid to ruin your day.

Stephen King is one of the most prolific and successful writers working today. Since 1974, with the publication of Carrie, his debut novel about a troubled girl with telekinetic powers, King has been raising the bar in the horror and mystery genres.

King certainly has some of the best human villains and supernatural villains of all-time. The man has been creating monsters for as long as we can remember (we're a pretty young staff, ehem), and he shows no sign of slowing down.

Perhaps it's his B-movie sensitivity that really makes his ghoulies shine, but its really about how the prose flows in his novels and countless short stories -- they aren't your normal fast-paced reads for the most part. King takes his time building tension and suspense. Like a boy slowly turning the crank on a jack-on-the-box, King masterfully works his way to the final moment of horror. No one has painted a page with more terror than the master of pop horror himself.

That's why he's so deeply rooted in our culture, and has managed to infiltrate every sector of entertainment in the world. From e-books to comics to musicals, King has conquered them all. Besides books, King's work has seen MAJOR success in movies and TV. The Shawshank Redemption is an instant classic of mystery and drama, while Carrie continues to scare us all half to death.

And he's not done yet.

Here's a list of all the upcoming movies and TV shows adapted from the work of Stephen King:

11/22/63

The premise of this show is as Stephen King as it gets: a guy must go back in time and stop the Kennedy assassination. Anyone who's familiar with The Dark Towerseries and The Dead Zonewill recognize a recurring theme: altering the past before it affects the future.

In 11/22/63, a guy named Jake steps through a pantry that magically transports him back to 1958 -- plenty of time to stop Lee Harvey Oswald from killing the President. As expected, Jake discovers on his journey that some things are better left in the past.

J.J. Abram's Bad Robot production company has acquired the rights to adapt this novel into a TV show. Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs) was working on the script, but he dropped out over disagreements on the direction the show should take. Bummer.

As of September, Hulu is turning this book into an original series.

Ayana

This is one of King's "miracle" tales -- the most famous of which is The Green Mile. A man is dying of pancreatic cancer until he meets a mysterious blind little girl named Ayana. She kisses the dying man's cheek and...you can pretty much guess what happens next.

NBC wants to turn this into a TV show. Chris Sparling (Buried) is writing the pilot. Ben Haber (Across the Universe) is set to produce, while Jordan Kerner (Less Than Zero) will executive produce. No director or cast have been announced at this time.

The Breathing Method

This is Stephen King showing off his literary chops as well as the campfire storytelling voice he's mastered: a pregnant woman is so determined to have her baby that even after being decapitated in a freak car accident, she continues to push...but that's not even the most mysterious part. More intriguing is the weird gentlemen's club that gets together to tell this story and others beside a fire. The club appears in several stories, including "The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands."

You get a sense of King's shared universe in these stories, and this could easily be the jumping off point for some kind of anthology film/series. For now, Jason Blum (Paranormal Activity) is producing a feature film, but has yet to set it up at Universal. Scott Derrickson (Doctor Strange) is set to direct.

Of course, now that Derrickson has been chosen to direct Doctor Strange, this film will most likely go on the back burner...

Cell

This is King's big zombie story. He's written a couple of other short stories, including the great "Home Delivery" from Nightmares & Dreamscapes, but this is the one he will be remembered for. The zombies in Cellaren't your typical brain-eating monsters. Instead, it's a strange cell phone signal from an unknown source that turns most of humanity into a zombie hive mind, whose goal is to turn the remaining humans into zombies. Sure, it's all chaos at first, but the monsters begin to organize in a weird way, kind of like in George A. Romero's Land of the Dead.

Eli Roth (Hostel) talked about adapting this novel into a feature film a few years back, but that didn't happen. Instead, it's currently in production eyeing a 2015 release. It stars John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Isabelle Fuhrman, and Owen Teague. The film will be directed by Todd "Kip" Williams (Paranormal Activity 2), with King and Adam Alleca (Last House on the Left remake) writing the screenplay.

Children of the Corn

This short story turned movie doesn't really need an introduction. You can read the story in Night Shift or watch the original 1984 film if you want to know what the fuss is all about. "Children of the Corn" is a horror classic about a murderous cult of corn-worshipping children. That's it. Just check it. Although there have been nine films already, Warner Bros. wants to make another. Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw 2) will reportedly direct with Jon Bokenkamp (The Blacklist) writing the script.

Creepshow 4

Who remembers the guy who is being hunted down by roaches? Or that guy who is buried alive by his nemesis? Remember when Stephen King was turned into a plant monster from outer space? If so, then you must be one of the horror buffs who watched the original Creepshow, a collaboration between King and George A. Romero (Dawn of the Dead) that soon proved to be a match made in heaven.

An homage to classic EC and DC horror comics, Romero and King created a horror anthology movie masterpiece that still stands as one of the best in the genre. The rumor is Warner Bros. is interested in making another sequel or a possible remake. It would be interesting to see them tap someone like Ti West (V/H/S) to direct.

The Dark Tower

If there was a Stephen King cinematic universe, The Dark Towerwould undoubtedly be its Avengers. The series of books ties most of King's book together in a very large web of monsters, magic, and alternate timelines. Inspired by The Lord of the Rings trilogy and spaghetti westerns, King created the anthem of all geekdom. The books are full of magic, gunslingers, sorcerors, battles on horseback, time-travel portals, evil A.I., vampires, demons, werewolves, and giant parasite-infested robotic bears. Why haven't they made a movie already?

Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind) has been trying to make this movie for years. At one point, he even tapped Javier Bardem for the lead role of Roland Deschain, the last gunslinger, who must travel to the eponymous Dark Tower in order to stop the Crimson King from tearing fabric of reality apart.

Now it looks like Russell Crowe (A Beautiful Mind) might play the role of Roland along with Idris Elba (Pacific Rim) in an unspecified role. Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) has also met with Howard about a part. Writer Akiva Goldsman and producer Brian Grazen, both of A Beautiful Mind fame, are also attached to move this adaptation along.

The big problem is getting a studio to finance such an ambitious project. The idea includes film and TV series that would tell the entire story in the most faithful way possible. Universal almost bought into it at one point and HBO had the television rights. Now it's rumored that Media Rights Capital will produce the film. Who knows anymore.

King assured us in October that the series would be adapted for big/small screens one way or another. He's just not sure when or who's playing Roland.

We're still hopeful, Constant Readers.

Firestarter

This isn't the first time a girl discovers she has crazy powers in a King novel nor would this be the first Firestarter film -- the original starred little Drew Barrymore in 1984. The story is about a father and daughter with unnatural powers, which were brought upon by experiments performed on them by a secret government organization called The Shop. Basically, The Shop want to capture the duo to exploit their powers and experiment on them some more.

The Shop turn up in several of King's works, which could make it another vital part of a Stephen King cinematic universe. They would make pretty great villains. Maybe they could be the same guys from that gentlemen's club in "The Breathing Method."

Universal and the Dino De Laurentiis Co. will produce a new adaptation of Firestarter. Mark L. Smith (Vacancy) will write the screenplay. The idea is to give the film more edge than the original in an attempt to create a potential franchise. We wouldn't mind a Stephen King movie franchise about a secret organization that investigates the paranormal and does evil shit with it.

Gerald's Game

Husband and wife like to get kinky in bed. They especially like bondage. So they go on vacation to a secluded cabin in western Maine to get their extra freak on. Husband handcuffs wife to bed post. The game gets a little out of hand. Wife defends herself and accidentally kills husband. Now wife is all alone in cabin in the woods with no one to help her and a dead husband on the floor.

Things get worse. A lot of weird visions (and a crazy villain called the Space Cowboy) later, you've read one of King's darkest books.

With a striking sexual appetite, the book makes you uncomfortable very quickly. And now we'll be able to watch it unfold on the big screen, too. Mike Flanagan (Oculus) is at the helm of this adaptation, co-writing the script with Jeff Howard (Oculus). Intrepid Pictures will produce. The film will release sometime in 2015.

Grand Central

Based on the short story "The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates," this TV show would tell the story of a widow who receives a call from her deceased husband, who predicts two tragedies that will alter her life forever. She'll probably spend most of the TV show preventing catastrophes, thanks to her husband's ridiculous disregard for her phone bill. The TV show comes from the former Dead Zonewriting team Sam Ernst and Jim Dunn, and is in development at ABC for a potential summer straight-to-series order.

IT

Basically, bring an extra pair of underwear to the theater. IT is one of the most terrifying and evil characters King has ever created. Taking the shape of a clown named Pennywise, IT eats little children and manipulates them into doing his bidding. IT's been around for centuries, returning every three decades to terrorize the town of Derry, Maine -- one of King's favorite places to have everyone murdered.

Although the novel was adapted into the classic 1990 television film starring Tim Curry (The Rocky Horror Show), IT will be reimagined as a feature film. Being split into two parts (I'm guessing so that the film makers can tell both the children and adult stories as accurately as possible), Cary Fukunaga (True Detective) will direct. Fukunaga will also co-write with Chase Palmer (Neo-Noir) and David Kajganich (The Invasion). The film will be produced by New Line Cinema.

Joyland

Joyland is the second of two paperbacks King has written for the Hard Case Crime series. The first is called The Colorado Kid and it's now a show called Haven on the Syfy channel.

Being part of a series of pulp books, King puts on his retro hat to spin out a yarn that takes places in 1973. Devin Jones is a college student who takes a job at Joyland, a carnival with a dark legacy. Devin is quickly thrust into a whodunit, as he races to find the person responsible for the grisly murders that have taken place throughout the carnival's history.

Tate Taylor (Winter's Bone) is directing and adapting the screenplay. Wyolah Films is producing. Aiming for a 2015 release, the film is still in pre-production.

Lisey's Story

This is one of those King novels you just don't see coming. A captivating supernatural love story, Lisey's Story is about a widow who must confront the absence of her late writer husband by traveling into an alternate world called "Boo'ya Moon" where her husband has left her a final gift to remember him by. She also has to escape a stalker who was obsessed with her husband and is now preying on her.

King writes a complex story about marriage, writing, mental illness, death, memory, and family history that really proves this guy can write about anything. Lisey's Story is certainly one of the best books of his later years.

Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) is attached to write and direct the feature film, which is slated for a 2015 release.

The Long Walk

Suffer the teenage boys. That's pretty much what King (writing as Richard Bachman -- his infamous and much more vicious alter-ego) is all about in this novel. The Long Walk takes place in a dystopian future where the totalitarian government of the USA makes 100 teenage boys participate in a sick televised contest: a walking contest that only one kid will survive.

If you guessed that anyone who isn't the winner is shot dead by the army or dies of thirst/fatigue, then you guessed right. If you don't keep moving forward, you die.

Frank Darabont, super frequent King collaborator, has secured the rights and is planning a low-budget film. This has the potential to be a home run. Fun fact: this was the first novel King ever wrote, but he failed to publish until many years later.

Mr. Mercedes

Mr. Mercedes, King's 2014 novel about a retired police detective who is being stalked by a killer, is currently being developed for TV. The premise is very primetime broadcast television, right? Nah, let's give the novel more credit than that. It's still King writing at his very creepiest, as the hardboiled mystery unfolds page after page.

The novel will be adapted by David E. Kelley (The Practice) and Jack Bender (Under the Dome), who will also act as executive producers on the show. Kelley will write the pilot and Bender will direct.

King is excited about the idea: "I’ve admired Jack Bender’s work for years, both as a director on Lost and later, Under the Dome, where he really caught the suspense element. David Kelley is incredibly gifted. I’m excited to work with these amazing talents."

The Overlook Hotel

We all know how King feels about Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (he hates it, believe it or not), so here's a chance for Hollywood to redeem itself with King for the past "blunder." And what better way to make up for a "botched" adaptation than to follow it up with a prequel decades later...? Not sure what the plot will contain, but we figure it has something to do with a bunch of new guests of the haunted hotel. Glen Mazzara (The Walking Dead) is making this prequel for Warner Bros. and Mythology Entertainment.

Pet Sematary

ZOMBIE PETS. ANCIENT NATIVE AMERICAN BURIAL GROUNDS. CANNIBALISM. THE WENDIGO -- a demon that haunts the forest beyond the pet cemetery. Guys, who the hell thought it would be a good idea to bury all the dead cats together? CATS! King builds up a terrible situation until the gruesome explosion of horror by movie's end. David Kajganich (The Invasion) wrote the first draft of a screenplay before Paramount turned writing duties to Matthew Greenberg (1408). Producers Lorenzo Di Bonaventura (Transformers) and Steven Schneider (Paranormal Activity) are on board to guide the project.

Rose Madder

In retrospect, this is one of King's least favorite novels. Why? Probably because it's too conventional for King, even though the subject is very serious -- domestic violence. Wife has a terrible life with husband, so she runs away and starts a new life. But husband is on her trail to get her back. Feels like a Lifetime movie for a bit until the supernatural painting shows up, but even that seems a bit conventional for King in a weird way. It's the first time readers start to see the cracks in King's formula. Was he running out of monsters? Anyways, the movie is coming. Naomi Sheridan (In America) is working on the screenplay.

The Shop

Remember when I mentioned that whole business about how cool it would be to start movie franchise revolving around The Shop? Well, they're getting their own TV series thanks to TNT. What is in it's most basic form a sequel to Firestarter, will undoubtedly branch out to tell other Shop stories involving new characters with supernatural powers.

Charlie McGee will be back, once again running from an even more powerful Shop. Luckily, she'll have a guy named Henry Talbot, a former Shop employee, to guide her through her life as a fugitive.

The project is written by Robbie Thompson (Supernatural) and produced by James Middleton (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), Jaime Paglia (Eureka) and Thompson.

The Stand

A superflu called "Captain Trips" wipes out most of the world's population in King's mangum opus. It's all about surviving the apocalypse for the main characters in this monstrous novel. But it's not just a pandemic the survivors have to worry about. There's real evil out there. Enter Randall Flagg, the most notorious villain in the King universe. The evil wizard hippie dude has shown up in many of King's books and stories to f*** things up for the main characters. But The Stand is the best of those books, a true examination of good and evil.

Josh Boone is directing and writing this one, too. Nat Wolff (The Fault in Our Stars), who has already worked with Boone, is rumored to be in the cast. Boone originally handed a treatment of the film to WB that proposed a one-film adaptation for an estimated budget of $87 million. As of Nov. 20, he suggested (or confirmed, depending on how much you like to believe from Hollywood) on Kevin Smith's Babble-On podcast that WB wanted him to turn the book into a series of four films. Apparently, Boone even got King's approval.

Interestingly enough, King told MTV in October that this adaptation will take more than one film to complete. Could this turn out to be an entire trilogy? It's certainly long enough.

In case you were wondering who they were going to get to play Flagg, wonder no more. It's Matthew McConaughey.

The Talisman

This is a fan favorite, which makes the lack of a big screen adaptation all the more surprising. The novel, written in collaboration with Peter Straub (Ghost Story), is about a boy who travels into another dimension to find a crystal known as "The Talisman," which could save his mother from dying of cancer. Boom! Story that will pull at your heart strings? Check. Add King's unique flair for the supernatural and endless bank of monsters, and you have one of the best adventure stories ever.

This adaptation has been in development hell for quite some time. Steven Spielberg was attached to produce a TV series at some point, but that fell through back in 2006. Frank Marshall (Raiders of the Lost Ark) is now trying to turn this novel into a feature film.

The Ten O'Clock People

This one's a little weird, and probably has a little to do with King's own life: a select few people who decide to quit smoking suddenly discover they have the ability to see that many of our world leaders are actually monsters disguised as people. It has something to do with a chemical imbalance. Either way, only King could come up with something like this. The film adaptation should be interesting. Tom Holland (Fright Night) is directing and writing the screenplay. Jay Baruchel (This Is The End) and Julie Browen star. Kathy Bates (Misery) and King himself are also rumored to appear. This film is slated for a 2015 release.

The Things They Left Behind

As if Greg Berlanti weren't busy enough with Arrow, The Flash, and the newly-announced Supergirl TV series, now CBS has announced that Berlanti, along with Seth Grahame-Smith (author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), are working on the put pilot for a new series based on Stephen King's short story "The Things They Left Behind," which was originally published in the psychological thriller compilation Trangsressions Vol. 2.

Berlanti will produce along with David Katzenberg and Grahame-Smith, who is also penning the pilot for CBS. The network has seen large success with Under the Dome, another series based on King's work. This new series will tell the story of "two investigators carrying out the unfinished business of the dead," according to Deadline.

The original short story doesn't quite go that way, instead dealing with the aftermath of 9/11 and one survivor's guilt over the deaths of his co-workers. In true King fashion, something weird begins to unfold in the man's apartment building. Random objects that belonged to those who died on 9/11 begin to appear in his aparment. The man must figure out the meaning of this phenomenon.

Do you have a scoop on a new Stephen King book or TV show in development? Let us know in the comments and we will continue to update this list! Until then, Constant Readers, stay tuned to Den of Geek for all your Stephen King news!