Blumhouse founder and CEO Jason Blum is teaming up with American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy to produce an adaptation of Stephen King's Mr. Hariggan's Phone. The thriller film is being produced for Netflix and has now added Donald Sutherland and Jaeden Martell to the cast.
Netflix's adaptation of Mr. Hariggan's Phone will be based on the story of the same name featured in King's If It Bleeds collection, which consisted of four previously unpublished novellas. The original story centered on a young boy named Craig, who is given a winning lottery ticket by a retired billionaire named Mr. Harrigan and decides to gift the elderly man with a new phone using some of the money he won. After Mr. Harrigan passes away, Craig discovers that he is able to communicate with his deceased friend through the phone that was buried with him, which has deadly consequences for certain individuals in Craig's life.
Sutherland and Martell's casting as Mr. Harrigan and Craig, respectively, was first announced at the second annual BlumFest, an event dedicated to projects from Blumhouse Productions. Production on Netflix's Mr. Harrigan's Phone is scheduled to begin in October 2021, with John Lee Hancock directing from a script he wrote. Blum, Murphy, and Carla Hacken will serve as producers, while Chris McCumber and Jeremy Gold of Blumhouse Television are on board as executive producers, alongside Scott Greenberg. Mr. Harrigan's Phone will be the fourth feature film adaptation of King's work to come from Netflix after Gerald's Game, 1922, and In the Tall Grass.
Mr. Harrigan's Phone phone is far from the only King adaptation coming from Blumhouse Productions in the near future. The studio has also partnered with Universal to produce a reboot of King's Firestarter, which tells the story of a young girl with deadly pyrokinetic abilities that she inherited from her parents. Meanwhile, Sony Pictures and Blumhouse are teaming up a remake of Christine, a King story that chronicles the exploits of a sentient, vengeful, jealous, and homicidal car.
Murphy is no stranger to horror either. The creative mastermind behind hits like Glee and Netflix's The Politician is also the creator and executive producer of American Horror Story, an anthology horror television series that tells a new tale with fresh characters each season. The success of the series spawned a spin-off titled American Horror Stories, which abandoned the season-long arc format of its predecessor in favor of scary tales told in self-contained anthological episodes.
The combination of Murphy and Blum should have most horror fans excited for the latest King adaptation. Of course, film and television interpretations of King's work have yielded mixed results. Some like Doctor Sleep earned rave reviews from audiences, while others like the Carrie remake were lambasted by moviegoers.
Mr. Harrigan's Phone is aiming for a 2022 release on Netflix.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter