Having snapped up the rights to Stephen King and Peter Straub’s The Talisman was back in 1982 – two years before the book’s publication – it seems that Steven Spielberg is finally ready to move forward with his adaptation of the fantasy novel.
As reported by Deadline, Spielberg and his Amblin Television are set to team with The Duffer Brothers, creators of Netflix’s hit supernatural series Stranger Things, for a limited series adaptation which has Stranger Things writer and executive producer Curtis Gwinn on board as writer and showrunner.
The Talisman follows Jack Sawyer, ” a 12-year old boy who sets off on an epic road-trip quest to save the life of his dying mother. He is in search of the Talisman, a powerful relic that can not only heal his mother but, as he learns, save the world. Sawyer’s journey criss-crosses two realities: the America we know and its dangerous, fantasy-world twin, The Territories.”
Spielberg first acquired the rights to the book as a potential directing vehicle, but never managed to fit the project into his schedule. Amblin had been developing a feature film version over the past few years however, with both Chris Sparling (Buried) and Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) working on the script and veteran TV director Mike Barker (Fargo, Broadchurch, The Handmaid’s Tale) linked to the director’s chair.
