James Wan and Roy Lee team up to tackle Stephen King’s The Tommyknockers

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

It's rare that a year goes by without a Stephen King project or two, but 2017 really felt like the year of King thanks to the success of IT, which led to more than a handful of Stephen King adaptations going into development, and now it appears as though we have one more to add to the pot. THR reports that James Wan (THE CONJURING) and Roy Lee (IT) will be teaming up to tackle "The Tommyknockers."

The pair will be producing the feature-film and put together a prospective package which hit studios and streaming services, such as Netflix, today. "The Tommyknockers" tells the story of a town in Maine which "falls under the influence of a dangerous gas from an unearthed space craft. The gas begins to transform the people, giving them enhanced abilities, but also making them violent and subject to an alien hive mentality. One man, thanks to a steel plate in his head, is immune to the effects and tries to stop the townspeople." The novel has been adapted once before as a well-received TV mini-series in 1993 starring Jimmy Smits and Marg Helgenberger, but should this project go forward, it would be the first time "The Tommyknockers" will make the leap to the big-screen. Larry Sanitsky, who produced the 1993 mini-series, is also onboard the new film and said the following in a mission statement sent to prospective buyers:

It is an allegorical tale of addiction (Stephen was struggling with his own at the time), the threat of nuclear power, the danger of mass hysteria and the absurdity of technical evolution run amuck. All are as relevant today as the day the novel was written. It is also a tale about the eternal power of love and the grace of redemption.

The synopsis for "The Tommyknockers" via Amazon:

On a beautiful June day, while walking deep in the woods on her property in Haven, Maine, Bobbi Anderson quite literally stumbles over her own destiny and that of the entire town. For the dull gray metal protrusion she discovers in the ground is part of a mysterious and massive metal object, one that may have been buried there for millennia. Bobbi can’t help but become obsessed and try to dig it out…the consequences of which will affect and transmute every citizen of Haven, young and old. It means unleashing extraordinary powers beyond those of mere mortals—and certain death for any and all outsiders. An alien hell has now invaded this small New England town…an aggressive and violent malignancy devoid of any mercy or sanity…

Stephen King doesn't seem to look back on "The Tommyknockers" kindly, as he's admitted that the quality of his writing suffered with his drug use during this period. "The Tommyknockers is an awful book," King told Rolling Stone several years ago. "That was the last one I wrote before I cleaned up my act."