(Remember wayyy back when Eli Roth was attached to direct a film based on Stephen King's Cell? Yeah, well, that obviously didn't happen, and now word has it those Weinstein boys have decided to take the property to the small screen instead. Here's Peter Hall reporting for Horror Squad)
Fangoria
got out word today from the Fantasia Film Festival that Stephen King's
Cell is no longer destined for the silver screen. Instead the novel will be reborn as a four hour TV mini-series to be scripted by
John Harrison. Details are rather sparse at this stage, but Harrison tells Fango his take on the material will be closer to a classic creeper like
Village of the Damned (I hope Harrison is referring to the original and not the languid John Carpenter remake) than an all out zombie movie.
If you recall
Eli Roth was long attached to a film adaptation of King's novel about a cell phone pulse that scrambles the inner workings of any poor sap that hears it, converting them instantly into a murderous member of a new society.
Read the rest on Horror Squad
Personally I think this is great news. I still remember my reaction to the original Roth attachment and how he envisioned the whole thing as a global blood bath. King's novel certainly has its share of apocalyptic waves of bloodshed, but its core is an intimate story of a band of survivors in a world turned upside-down, which is something I never pegged Roth as a being that interested in. I'm glad to hear that
Cell has expanded its exhibition (no way that book should have been crammed into an opening weekend pleasing 100 minutes, anyway) while contracting its scope closer to that of King's original vision.
I really enjoyed this one, it was the darkest of them all, but had a lot of twists and turns that you didn't expect. It really tore at my heart when Ron left Hermione and Harry, and how it really hurt Hermione the most. I was so happy to see Ron show back up. I don't know if Harry should have kept the truth about what he was doing for so long, especially since Hermione and Ron are his best friends and have been through so much with him, but Harry still had to get through his own troubles, especially the pain from seeing into Voldemort's mind. It was so hard to read about all my favorite characters dieing in the end, but when you are writing such a dark book, there is going to be death. I was so happy to see Neville stand up and be just like his parents, willing to die for those he loved. I was so proud of him. When Harry finally learned about Snape and his mother and the fact that Snape was always with Dumbledore, that just made smile deeply. Harry was so torn about the death of Dumbledore, especially at the hands of Snape and it was great to see that wash away when he saw Snape's memories. In the end it was fantastic, to go 19 years later and to be able to see what came of Heroine, Ron, Harry and Ginny and all the others, it was wonderful. Now I want a new series to be written about Harry and all them and their children.