'Firestarter' Remake Could Still Shoot This Year If Things Go Blumhouse's Way

Blumhouse is gearing up to make a Firestarter remake, and while pretty much every single movie production is currently on pause, the famed horror distributor really hopes they can shoot this thing this year. Scott Teems, co-writer of the upcoming Halloween Kills, is handling the Firestarter script, and in a new interview, he revealed that the director is still in place, and Blumhouse is "making active steps" to getting the film made this year.

Firestarter, Stephen King's 1980 novel about a young woman with pyrokinetic abilities, is getting a new film adaptation from Blumhouse. That's not new info. What is new, though, is screenwriter Scott Teems revealing that Blumhouse is still hoping to shoot the film this year, coronavirus be damned. Speaking with MovieWeb, Teems said:

"I'm still the writer. We just got a new director named Keith Thomas and he made a great film called The Vigil coming up this year, and Universal and Blumhouse, they want to make Firestarter. It has always been an important project to them. I think we're making active steps toward that happening this year. You know, the industry shut down notwithstanding, and that may change things, but right now, I'm really hopeful that it might happen this year."

The remake was first announced back in 2017, and in 2018, Fatih Akin was attached as director. By late 2019, though, Keith Thomas had replaced Akin, and is still attached. Whether or not Blumhoue actually gets around to shooting the film this year is another story, though. Everything is at a stand-still at the moment, and it's unclear when work on movies will be able to pick back up.

Firestarter focuses on Charlie McGee, a young girl who has the power to start fires with her mind. Here's the official book synopsis:

Andy McGee and Vicky Tomlinson were once college students looking to make some extra cash, volunteering as test subjects for an experiment orchestrated by the clandestine government organization known as The Shop. But the outcome unlocked exceptional latent psychic talents for the two of them—manifesting in even more terrifying ways when they fell in love and had a child. Their daughter, Charlie, has been gifted with the most extraordinary and uncontrollable power ever seen—pyrokinesis, the ability to create fire with her mind. Now the merciless agents of The Shop are in hot pursuit to apprehend this unexpected genetic anomaly for their own diabolical ends by any means necessary...including violent actions that may well ignite the entire world around them as Charlie retaliates with a fury of her own...

The book was previously adapted into a movie in 1984, starring Drew Barrymore. The end result wasn't great, and it ended up being a box office flop. Here's hoping things turn out better this time. There was also a made-for-TV sequel, but let's all ignore that, okay?