James Franco to get sauced in Stephen King’s Drunken Fireworks

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

It's not like there's ever been a time that Stephen King hasn't been churning out work, but this year seems especially fruitful. In the next couple years, we'll be seeing film adaptations of THE DARK TOWER, CELL, a remake of IT, and TV series based on Mr. Mercedes and The Mist. It's time to add one more to that towering pile.

DRUNKEN FIREWORKS is coming to the silver screen. Based on a short story released in the king collection THE BAZAAR OF BAD DREAMS, the film is produced by Rabbit Bandini Productions and Rubicon Entertainment and set to star James Franco, who is an equally prolific creative maniac. The script is being written by Matt Rager (AS I LAY DYING, THE SOUND AND THE FURY, both previous literary adaptations and collaborations with Franco).

Drunken Fireworks is a darkly comic tale of a blue-collar mechanic and a retired mob boss who go head to head in an increasingly antagonistic annual Fourth of July fireworks competition.

The tale is set in small-town rural Maine, where local good ol’ boy Alden McCausland (Franco) strikes up a rivalry with retired mob boss Nicky Serrano when Nicky moves in across the lake from Alden and his mother. When Nicky bests Alden’s Fourth of July fireworks show, Alden goes to great lengths to ensure that he beats Nicky the next year in a competition known henceforth as the “Fourth of July Arms Race."

There is no director currently on board, though there is a possibility that the tireless Franco will also shoulder that responsibility.