It producer Roy Lee and his Vertigo Entertainment banner are partnering with Ryan Silbert's Origin Story and Chris Romero, the widow of horror legend George A. Romero, to produce a feature adaptation of Stephen King's bestselling novel The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, it was announced Wednesday.
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon tells the story of Trisha McFarland, a 9-year-old girl who goes on a hike up the Appalachian Trail with her brother and their recently divorced mother, only to veer off the path and get lost. She winds up stumbling through the woods for nine days, wandering farther and farther from civilization as she tries to make her way back home. As she walks, hunger, dehydration and exhaustion cause her to hallucinate, and she begins to believe that she’s being stalked by a supernatural beast known as The God of the Lost.
Lee and his Vertigo partner Jon Berg will produce with Silbert and Chris Romero, the latter of whom will produce under her late husband's banner Sanibel Films. Andrew Childs will serve as an executive producer on the project. I've never read this King book, but it sounds a bit different than his typical work, and I've always liked his stories with younger protagonists such as The Body, which served as the basis for the film Stand by Me.
“I’m thrilled that my book is being brought to the screen, and that George’s company is involved. Chris Forrest (Romero) has worked long and hard to make this project happen,” King said in a statement.
“We are thrilled to join forces with the team at Vertigo on the film adaptation of The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, a story that is so close to our hearts. We cannot wait for fans to experience Trisha’s journey on the big screen as we adapt Stephen King’s visionary and timeless novel to a new medium,” Romero and Silbert said in a joint statement.
The collaboration comes at an exciting time for Vertigo, which has the King adaptations It: Chapter Two and Doctor Sleep hitting theaters this fall. Meanwhile, Silbert and his Origin Story banner are credited with co-creating the New York Times-Audible storytelling event Stan Lee’s Alliances: A Trick of Light alongside Stan Lee and Luke Lieberman, which will also be released as a full-length novel by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on Sept. 17.
King is represented by Paradigm, while CAA reps Vertigo. Silbert and Romero are both represented by Yfat Reiss Gendell of Foundry Literary + Media.
