First Blood author’s survival thriller Testament getting a film adaptation

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

The cinematic adaptation of his novel FIRST BLOOD presented the lead character in a different, more sympathetic way than author David Morrell had written him, but still, Morrell is the person who first brought Rambo to the world, so it's surprising that more of his stories haven't gotten film adaptations. Morrell has written a few dozen novels, but other than FIRST BLOOD (and the novelizations he wrote for a couple of the Rambo sequels), the only ones that have been brought to the screen are BROTHERHOOD OF THE ROSE, which was made as a two-part mini-series in 1989, and the story But At My Back I Always Hear, which was turned into an episode of the television series The Hunger. Morrell also wrote an episode of the TV show Monsters.

Now we have another Morrell adaptation to look forward to, as Reel World Management has announced that they are developing an adaptation of his 1975 novel TESTAMENT, which can be purchased at THIS LINK.

Ian Jeffers (THE GREY, DEATH SENTENCE) will be writing the screenplay. TESTAMENT is a survival thriller that tells the story of 

an ordinary family that must face extraordinary circumstances after being forced to flee into a wilderness as extreme and unrelenting as the people hunting them.

I haven't reach the book, but it has been described as Morrell's "most intense" novel, and from the reviews I've seen it sounds like a real soul-crusher. Morrell himself says, 

This is my most disturbing novel. That's not hype. Some readers said it gave them nightmares. A journalist and his family are stalked by a right-wing paramilitary group after the journalist writes an incriminating article about them. The first chapter is a shocker, beginning with "It was the last morning the four of them would ever be together." The shocks keep increasing after that. The conclusion is very controversial. Look for numerous allusions to classic American novels. To research the book’s outdoor scenes, I took a wilderness-survival course from the National Outdoor Leadership School and lived for five weeks in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming, often above timberline."

Reel World is a production, financing, and distribution company headed up by Roma Roth and Christopher E. Perry. Roth had this to say about TESTAMENT: 

I’ve been waiting for the underlying rights for TESTAMENT to become available for close to 20 years. I’ve never come across another book that stayed with me in quite the same way. It grabs you from the first page and never lets you go. Ian Jeffers is the perfect writer to bring this powerful and emotional exploration of family and survival to life."

Morrell added,

I am thrilled to be working with Reel World Management and Roma Roth, a dedicated and talented filmmaker who shares both my passion and vision for the novel."

The Minneapolis Tribune's review of the novel included the line, "The pages smell of violence, and the fear oozes out between the lines." Sounds like a winner to me.

Source: Deadline

About the Author

Cody is a news editor and film critic, focused on the horror arm of JoBlo.com, and writes scripts for videos that are released through the JoBlo Originals and JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channels. In his spare time, he's a globe-trotting digital nomad, runs a personal blog called Life Between Frames, and writes novels and screenplays.