Steven Spielberg & the Duffer Bros. developing Stephen King’s The Talisman

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Another day, another adaptation of a Stephen King novel. THR has reported that Steven Spielberg and the Duffer Brothers are developing an adaptation of The Talisman, a novel which King co-wrote with Peter Straub. Spielberg has actually had the screen rights for The Talisman for close to forty years, and has been trying to get a feature-film version of the story off the ground all that time, but this time around, The Talisman will be a TV series for Netflix.

The Talisman tells of a "12-year old boy named Jack Sawyer who sets off on an epic road-trip quest in order to save his dying mother’s life. 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." Matt and Ross Duffer will executive produce through their Monkey Massacre Productions banner while Steven Spielberg will executive produce via Amblin Television. The Talisman will be written by Curtis Gwinn, who serves as a writer and executive producer on the Duffer Bros.' Stranger Things, and Gwinn will also serve as showrunner on the series.

A synopsis of The Talisman via Amazon:

Why had twelve-year-old Jack Sawyer’s mother frantically moved the two of them from Rodeo Drive to a New York City apartment to the Alhambra, a fading ocean resort and shuttered amusement park in New Hampshire? Who or what is she running from? She is dying . . . and even young Jack knows she can’t outrun death. But only he can save her—for he has been chosen to search for a prize across an epic landscape of dangers and lies, a realm of innocents and monsters, where everything Jack loves is on the line.

Given the sprawling nature of the novel, a TV series adaptation of The Talisman is probably the best way to go, and when you combine the talents of Steven Spielberg and the Duffer Bros., not to mention Netflix's seemingly unlimited bank account, we might have something very special in store.