We are now coming to the end of what has been a stellar year for Stephen King adaptations. A total of six different projects premiered either on the big screen or on television, and they have spanned just about the entire calendar – from Osgood Perkins' The Monkey back in February, to HBO's IT: Welcome To Derry, which will air its Season 1 finale this Sunday. As great as it is to look back at what came out in 2025, however, there is also what seems to be a never-ending flow of new King adaptations in the works, and now joining that list is a project that is being personally developed by Giancarlo Esposito.
The Breaking Bad star has some interesting history with King, as he had a small role in 1986's Maximum Overdrive (the author's notorious directorial debut) and starred in the premiere episode of the anthology series Creepshow (which is based on King's short story "Gray Matter"). Now, according to Deadline, he is working to make a movie based on "The Dreamers" – which happens to be my favorite novella included in the 2024 omnibus You Like It Darker. Esposito says that a deal is presently being finalized to make the adaptation, and he collaborating with screenwriter Guy Busick, with whom he had the chance to work on the 2024 horror movie Abigail.
Easily the scariest story in Stephen King's most recent collection of short stories, "The Dreamers" is about a skilled transcriptionist who lands a gig working for an eccentric scientist in the town of Castle Rock, Maine. His employer is working to discover what exists beneath dreams, and experiments see test subjects given a hypnotic drug before studying a picture of a house built in a forest, which they are told to mentally explore. The tests at first result in strange happenings, but before too long, it escalates to full-on Lovecraftian nightmare.
Some of the imagery in the book is deeply shocking, and I am beyond excited to see them brought to life on the big screen. Horror fans should keep their fingers tightly crossed for this one.
In addition to co-writing the aforementioned Abigail, Guy Busick is best known for being part of the writing teams that brought us Ready Or Not, 2022's Scream, Scream VI and Final Destination: Bloodlines. Like Giancarlo Esposito, however, he also has his own past with Stephen King, as he was a writer/story editor on Season 2 of the Hulu original series Castle Rock. His upcoming projects include both Scream 7 (which will be released in February 2026) and Ready Or Not: Here I Come (April 2026).
As far as upcoming Stephen King projects are concerned, the only one presently expected to be released next year is Mike Flanagan's Carrie series for Amazon Prime Video... but things can develop quickly in Hollywood, and we'll have to wait and see if that changes. Stay tuned for more news here on CinemaBlend about developing King movies, TV shows, and limited series – which will hopefully include updates about The Dreamers.
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