Nearly four decades ago, Steven Spielberg secured the movie rights for Stephen King and Peter Straub’s The Talisman. A film adaptation never materialized, but perhaps Spielberg will have better luck on the small screen. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Spielberg is now joining forces with Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer to bring The Talisman to Netflix.
King and Straub co-wrote and published The Talisman in 1984. However, Spielberg first acquired the rights to the book two years earlier. An adaptation has languished in development hell ever since. Most recently, Spielberg’s Amblin Partners hired The Handmaid’s Tale director Mike Barker to helm a movie version in 2019 with Chris Sparling (Buried) writing the script. Now that the project is being re-imagined for TV, the producers have enlisted Curtis Gwinn as writer and showrunner. Previously, Gwinn worked with the Duffer Brothers as a writer and executive producer on Stranger Things.
The Talisman centers on 12-year-old Jack Sawyer. In an effort to save his mom from a terminal cancer diagnosis, Jack embarks on a cross-country road trip in search of the titular artifact, which he believes can cure his mother’s disease. Along the way, he also stumbles upon a parallel fantasy world known as the Territories. King and Straub later continued Jack’s story in a follow-up novel, Black House, which they published in 2001.
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Spielberg will executive produce the series through Amblin Television alongside Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey. The Duffers are also executive producing through their own Monkey Massacre Productions banner. King is onboard as an executive producer as well. Todd Cohen will oversee the show’s day-to-day development for Amblin.
Netflix still hasn’t shared a release window for The Talisman.
Are you excited to see how the novel will translate to TV? Let us know in the comments down below!
Recommended Reading: The Talisman: A Novel
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