'From A Buick 8' Is The Latest Stephen King Novel To Land A Film Adaptation

Hollywood has Stephen King fever, and pretty soon every single thing the man has written will find its way to the screen. The latest King adaptation is From a Buick 8, based on King's 2002 novel about a car from another dimension. It's a lot less silly than it sounds. William Brent Bell, who helmed the 2016 creepy doll film The Boy, will direct.

Deadline has the news about the From a Buick 8 adaptation. William Brent Bell will write and direct for Ashok Amritraj's Hyde Park Entertainment. This isn't exactly one of King's best-known novels, but since most of King's work has already been made (or remade), Hollywood is starting to explore the far corners of his resume, looking for something, anything to adapt. The novel focuses on a mysterious, otherworldly car that spits out monsters from another dimension. King frames all of this as a story about family, and, oddly enough, it works. Here's the book's synopsis:

Since 1979, the state police of Troop D in rural Pennsylvania have kept a secret in the shed out behind the barracks. Ennis Rafferty and Curtis Wilcox had answered a strange call just down the road and came back with an abandoned 1953 Buick Roadmaster. Curt Wilcox knew old cars, and this one was...just wrong. As it turned out, the Buick 8 was worse than dangerous—and the members of Troop D decided that it would be better if the public never found out about it. Now, more than twenty years later, Curt's son Ned starts hanging around the barracks and is allowed into the Troop D family. And one day he discovers the family secret—a mystery that begins to stir once more, not only in the minds and hearts of these veteran troopers, but out in the shed as well, for there's more power under the hood than anyone can handle....

At one point, legendary horror director George A. Romero was going to turn the book into a film, with a script by Johnathon Schaech and Richard Chizmar. Later, Texas Chainsaw Masscare director Tobe Hooper took over for Romero. Ultimately, the film was never made due to financing problems. But that was back before Hollywood realized Stephen King could be a cash-making machine when done right. King adaptations have always been prevalent, but 2017's It was something of a sea change. That King adaptation was a hit with both critics and audiences, and producers realized that when done right, a King adaptation could be a major success.

Ever since, studios have been green-lighting King adaptations left and right. From a Buick 8 joins upcoming adaptations like Pet Sematary; It Chapter 2; Hulu's Castle Rock; Doctor Sleep, the sequel to The Shining; The Long Walk; The Tommyknockers; a 10-hour miniseries adaptation of The Stand; The Bone Church; Amazon's Dark Tower series; Netflix's In The Tall Grass; The Gingerbread Girl; a remake of Firestarter; and a Creepshow TV series.