Yesterday we brought you the not-surprising news that Josh Boone's adaptation of Stephen King's THE STAND would be stretched out over the course of four films. Boone shared this new information while talking with TUSK helmer Kevin Smith on Smith's Hollywood Babble-On podcast. The idea of Boone tackling the Master of Horror Stephen King's epic novel is exciting enough, but there was some equally as intriguing news later in the 2-hour podcast that got me excited for a different project from Boone and another of horror's biggest names.
Boone shared that he will be developing a one season miniseries based on Clive Barker's "Imajica" for TV with Barker being heavily involved in the process as well. If you have ever read "Imajica" then you know how badass this could be. Barker himself has stated in the past that "Imajica" was his favorite of all his writings, so it would be amazing to see this come together.
Boone shared…
"I have this vision in my head of doing all these books I loved when I was young and kind of bringing them to the screen at the highest level they can be brought at, because I know how it was in my head when I read them and how vivid they were…
"When I was a kid I loved this book, Imajica, and we're going to do like a one-season TV mini-series of that novel… I was doing press for Fault [in Our Stars] and this incredible company – I love these guys – called MRC called me and said, 'What do you want to do; we'll option anything you want?' and I said, 'I want to do Imajica as a TV series,' and they were like, 'Let's do it,' and they went and made the deal and I was meeting Clive Barker a couple of weeks later – an incredible experience…"
Seeing as how Boone will be extremely busy with THE STAND, you might think that it could be quite some time before the ball gets rolling on "Imajica". But Boone has plans to shoehorn it in in-between THE STAND films, stating…
"I'll fit it in after The Stand. You know, there's really nothing like Imajica on TV, it's so out there that like there's not really anything competing with it that makes it that hard to do and we'll do that – I think I shoot the pilot after the first Stand movie and squeeze that in nicely between the first one and the second one."
This is amazing news for fans of Barker's work. I'm a Barker fanatic and agree that "Imajica" is his best work so far (still patiently waiting for "The Scarlet Gospels" to arrive!). It's a rather epic story and will be interesting to see brought to life as a one-season series. I'm sure Boone, who sounds very passionate about it, will do a bang-up job with it.
If you're unfamiliar with "Imajica", below is the rather long synopsis so you can know what to expect.
Amid a seamless tapestry of erotic passion, thwarted ambition, and mythic horror, Imajica picks out the brightly colored threads of three memorable characters: John Furie Zacharias, known as Gentle, a master forger whose own life is a series of lies; Judith Odell, a beautiful woman desired by three powerful men, but belonging to none of them; and Pie 'oh' Pah, a mysterious assassin who deals in love as well as death.
United in a desperate search for the heart of a universal mystery, all three discover that the truth lies in a place as mysterious as the face of God and as secret as the human soul. They discover the Imajica.
The Imajica: five Dominions, four bound together–reconciled with one another–and one, the Earth, forever cut off from her brothers, her inhabitants living in ignorance on the edge of a sea of possibilities, an ocean of mystery and magic. Only very few know of the Imajica, and of those, many are frightened. For a time is coming, a time of great risk, a time of great promise. A time of Reconciliation.
It happens only once every two hundred years–a shining, mystical moment in which Earth can be reunited with the other four Dominions. As Judith, Gentle, and Pie race to capture that moment, other forces are gathering to keep the Earth locked up forever in the darkness that surrounds her.
Their quest will carry them on an epic journey through all five Dominions, from the barbaric, glittering city fo Yzordderrex to the haunted peaks of the Jokalaylau mountains, from the hallowed walls of Patashoqua to the very border of the greatest mystery of all: the First Dominion, on the other side of which lies the Holy City of the Unbeheld, where either their highest hopes or deepest fears will be realized.
None of them will remain unchanged by the journey. Nor will the reader who accompanies them. Imajica is a novel of vast panoramas and intimate, obsessive passions; of visionary splendors and heart-stopping terrors. It is also a book of revelations. Long after you have turned the final page, you will be yearning for its wonders, and believing they are just a breath away.