The Talisman Finally Getting an Adaptation, more than 30 years after Spielberg bought rights

Almost a year ago we brought you the news that Stephen Spielberg was calling for an adaptation to Stephen King and Peter Straub’s collaboration The Talisman. In an interview last year Spielberg confessed that he has actually owned the rights to the novel since 1982 after reading it and falling in love with it, and now we finally have confirmation that an adaptation is indeed to be created.

Mike Barker, director of Outlander and The Handmaid’s Tale has been hired for the project, to tell the story of a young boy named Jack Sawyer and his quest through a monstrous dimension to find the mystical title object that might cure his dying mother, and even save two worlds in the process.

Early indications are that the adaptation will be a movie, and Amblin and the Kennedy/Marshall Company will be producing. The pair have been involved in the project with Spielberg for decades and will be glad to see the project coming to fruition. Chris Sparling, writer of Buried will adapt the book to create the movie.

So after more than thirty years in the hands of Stephen Spielberg, many hiccups and holdups, Jack Sawyer’s story is finally coming to the big screen!

Watch this space for more news, but if you want to read the novel first, it’s a whopping 944 pages so you may want to get started soon!