James Wan and Larry Sanitsky teaming up for Stephen King’s Tommyknockers
Universal Pictures has won a bidding war for the big screen rights to Stephen King novel The Tommyknockers, according to The Hollywood Reporter. James Wan (The Conjuring) and Roy Lee (IT) will produce the film, which has no director or writer yet.
Universal reportedly beat out Sony Pictures and Netflix for the rights.
The 1987 horror novel is described as follows: Writer Bobbi Anderson becomes obsessed with digging up something she’s found buried in the woods near her home. With the help of her friend, Jim Gardener, she uncovers an alien spaceship. Though exposure to the Tommyknockers who piloted the alien craft has detrimental effects on residents’ health, the people of Haven develop a talent for creating innovative devices under its increasingly malignant influence.
Wan from Atomic Monster and Lee from Vertigo are joining producer Larry Sanitsky (the 1993 TV miniseries based on The Tommyknockers) to work on the film.
The Tommyknockers is the second best-selling Stephen King book in its hardcover release. The book outsold IT. The previous Tommyknockers miniseries starred Jimmy Smits and Marg Helgenberger. There was talk of doing a miniseries version of the book back in 2013 for NBC.
