Fans of the popular best-selling author Stephen King will likely be thrilled to hear yet another adaptation of one of his famous stories is soon to be made into a film and according to some, this may be the best adaptation yet.
Any Stephen King fan who is familiar with the horror author’s short story collection, Night Shift might recall a story by the name “I Am the Doorway.” In another of his sidesteps into science fiction, King wrote the story quite some time ago, and it tells the tale of an astronaut by the name of Arthur, returning home a shattered man after a journey to investigate the desolate planet Pluto.
In the story, Arthur sees eyes forcing their way through the skin of his hands. These eyes distort his friends and even the landscape itself into monstrous visions, taking control of his life. Arthur believes himself to be the doorway to an alien invasion of Earth and future scenes of gruesome murder, and he feels he must take desperate action.
Jeffrey Stackhouse, Richard A. Becker, and Wendy Lashbrook are reportedly the award-winning U.S. screenwriters involved in adapting King’s short story into an equally short film. Previously, these screenwriters have won awards at the PAGE International Screenwriting Awards, the Shriekfest Horror Festival in Los Angeles, and the Las Vegas Screenplay Contest, so they come highly recommended for the job.
Reportedly, the adaptation of “I Am the Doorway” is officially licensed under Stephen King’s “Dollar Baby” scheme, set up to give successful applicants an opportunity to make non-commercial adaptations of King’s famous short stories by paying the huge sum of $1. An earlier example of one of the adaptations under this scheme a film by Frank Darabont, The Woman in the Room .
According to Movie Pilot , the writers said of their screenplay for the short story that it is “a movie in the tradition of Argento and Cronenberg, a film of beautiful colors and gorgeous widescreen set pieces, which frame a brutal and devastating horror.”
Multi-award-winning British director Simon Pearce is at the helm of the ambitious adaptation of the Stephen King story . Pearce is well known for his talent in the horror sphere with the 2013 film Judas Ghost .
Working with Pearce are producer Wolfram Parge and Phil Meheux (of Casino Royale and The Long Good Friday fame) will be shooting the film with SFX provided by Illusion Industries, who were involved in the Blade and Pirates of the Caribbean films.
Our eager and attentive fundraising staff are waiting to assist you. https://t.co/Noq6ybIiLA pic.twitter.com/kTkM6c8tk6
— I Am The Doorway (@doorway2016) February 17, 2016
Production will hopefully start in summer of 2016, depending on whether the producers and directors reach their Indiegogo crowdfunding target of $15,000. Stephen King fans can, of course, help towards this aim, with several amazing rewards on offer, including tickets to the premiere of the film, a producer credit and even an amazing prosthetic hand complete with scary alien eyes.
The movie I Am the Doorway will be a 20-minute short film based on the short story, and you can hear Simon Pearce talk about the production in the video included below.
As reported on the Inquisitr , this isn’t, of course, the only recent adaptation of Stephen King’s work, with the Hulu miniseries 11.22.63 having launched on February 15 this year. Reviews have been mostly positive for the mini-series adaptation of King’s story of a history teacher who travels back in time in an attempt to stop the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
There is also a movie remake of the miniseries based on the terrifying clown horror novel It in the making, with filming likely to start this summer.
Probably the most anticipated of all is the upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series of fantasy books, and on top of this, King’s zombie story , Cell , is currently experiencing its world premiere at the Film4 Frightfest in Glasgow, Scotland, running from February 17-28.
[Photo of Stephen King by Joe Kohen/Getty Images Entertainment – Night Shift via YouTube ]
