It’s almost time to burn, baby, burn.
The much-anticipated remake of the 1984 feature adaptation of Stephen King’s classic Firestarter hits theaters and Peacock this Friday, May 13, and the man behind the camera–Keith Thomas–recently shed some light on how he approached this beloved property.
Never play with fire. ? @ZacEfron goes into full protective dad mode (!) in this exclusive clip from #Firestarter. https://t.co/HjVsZ7PxKm pic.twitter.com/EskLfBcp4a
— IMDb (@IMDb) May 9, 2022
Discussing the Blumhouse and Universal project, Thomas told comicbook.com that when he first signed on to direct the film, “I had read the script and I knew the book–I’d read it several times. And I’d seen the original film countless times, so I knew the story.”
So, when Thomas read the screenplay–written by Scott Teems–he said he “knew what he was doing, the changes he was making and the interesting ways he was taking it. And I thought it was very appealing.”
The 1984 movie, he said, “is very close to the book in terms of the way the plot operates. And I thought that exists–it’s wonderful–but I want to do something that’s a little different. Something that is both a remix of the same story, but telling it from a slightly different direction. It’s an approach that I feel speaks to me as a filmmaker.”
And the young star of the remake–Ryan Kiera Armstrong–faced her own challenges as she set out to tackle the part that was the breakout role for a young Drew Barrymore. She said she wanted the film “to be distinct and different, but also a renewed version of Firestarter. And to be unique and its own. And Keith did an amazing job of doing that.”
In Firestarter, parents Andy (Zac Efron) and Vicky (Sydney Lemmon) have been on the run, desperate to hide their daughter Charlie (Armstrong) “from a shadowy federal agency that wants to harness her gift for creating fire into a weapon of mass destruction,” according to the synopsis.
After an incident reveals the family’s location, “a mysterious operative (Michael Greyeyes) is deployed to hunt down the family and seize Charlie once and for all. Charlie has other plans.”
The R-rated Firestarter–helmed by Thomas from a screenplay by Teems–also stars Kurtwood Smith, John Beasley and Gloria Reuben. The score was composed by the legendary John Carpenter, working with Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies.
Keep reading Horror News Network for any last-minute updates on Firestarter.
