As is the way with many Stephen King fans, I sit awaiting the big screen adaptations of IT and The Dark Tower with feverish anticipation. However, my Little Monsters, we mustn’t allow ourselves become too distracted by large menacing clowns or allow that dark tower cast too large a shadow over other King adaptations that are coming to smaller screens.
One such adaptation is for his 1992 novel, Gerald’s Game, which will be released exclusively on Netflix sometime this year. This adaptation was directed by Mike Flanagan, based on a script he wrote with Jeff Howard. The movie stars Bruce Greenwood, as Gerald Burlingame and Carla Gugino, as Jessie Burlingame , and features a supporting cast that includes Henry Thomas, Kate Siegel, Carel Struycken, and Chiara Aurelia.
Gerald’s Game tell the story of Gerald and Jessie Burlingame who, on a warm October Day, decide to take a trip to their summer home. Their love life having become, shall we say stagnant, is in need an extraordinary catalyst, bordering on exotic and fairly aggressive, to provide rejuvenation. While shackled to the bedposts, Jessie becomes increasingly bored with Gerald’s sex games. But before she can be released from her confinement, tragedy strikes. Bound to the bed with no means of escape, Jessie plunges into an introspective hell with nothing and nobody but the ghosts and demons of her past to keep her company. Then again, perhaps there is someone or something lurking in the shadows.
Stephen King has always been a pretty staunch critic of the adaptations of his novels that he did not enjoy, and has not felt the need to varnish his opinion. But this week he took to Twitter to let fans know where he stands on many upcoming adaptations of his work.
THE MIST, MR. MERCEDES, 1922, GERALD'S GAME, THE DARK TOWER, and IT: Believe it or not, they all look awesome.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) April 4, 2017
To read this kind of statement from he author himself, the man who actually envisioned these tales, gives me confidence that they pass muster. Gerald’s Game is currently in post production, but you can rest assured, my Little Monsters, that when there is a release date for it, we’ll pass it along post haste.