Fans of Stephen King have an additional reason to be happy as another one of his stories will be adapted into a feature film! Universal and Blumhouse Productions are joining forces to bring King’s ‘Gramma’ to the big screen.
Jason Blum, who has garnered much acclaim through his work producing the horror films, ‘Insidious,’ ‘Sinister,’ and the ‘Paranormal Activity’ films, will be producing the film, which has been retitled ‘Mercy,’ and has Peter Cornwell (‘The Haunting in Connecticut’) directing off a script written by Matt Greenberg (who coincidentally also adapted King’s ‘1408’ into a feature and wrote the script for the ‘Pet Cemetery’ remake). Frances O’Connor (‘A.I. Artificial Intelligence,’ ‘Timeline’) is also set to star.
‘Gramma’ was published in 1985 as part of the anthology novel ‘Skeleton Key’ and “follows two young boys who go with their single mother (O’Connor) to take care of their elderly, senile grandmother named Mercy, only to discover that she’s a witch who made an evil pact with a dark force many years before.”
The story is considered part of the Cthulhu Mythos as it includes characters, creatures and supernatural powers that are featured in the H.P. Lovecraft’s works, which is one of the reasons why this story is such a great read! Hopefully, Greenberg’s script will keep these elements as it’s not clear how much of the source material he is keeping in his version.
No word as to when production of ‘Mercy’ will begin but it sounds like everything is moving forward quickly. With the talented people attached to the film, this is one project I’m looking forward to seeing!
This isn’t the first time ‘Gramma’ has been adapted into a script. In 1986, the short story was featured in the television series ‘The New Twilight Zone’ which the amazing Harlan Ellison adapted for the series. To get a taste of what the feature film will be about, here’s ‘The New Twilight Zone’ episode of ‘Gramma’ below!
‘The New Twilight Zone’ – Gramma:
Source: THR
