You can never have too many Stephen King adaptations. According to Deadline, the next work from the prolific author on the adaptation docket is The Regulators, the 1996 novel about… well, wow, this one’s about a lot. Including transforming houses?
The book has been optioned by the Bohemia Group, which brought on George Cowan—who seems to be new to screenwriting, at least per his stark IMDb page—to write the screenplay.
The Regulators is one of the novels King published under the name Richard Bachman. Its summary reads:
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The Regulators
It’s a gorgeous midsummer afternoon along Poplar Street in the peaceful suburbia of Wentwort, Ohio, where life is as pleasant as you ever dreamed it could be. But that’s all about to end in blaze of gunfire and sudden violence, forever shattering the tranquility and the good times here. For the physical makeup of Poplar Street itself is now being transformed into a surreal landscape straight out of the active imagination of the innocent and vulnerable Seth Garin—an autistic boy who’s been exposed to and possessed by a horrific, otherworldly force of evil, one with sadistic and murderous intent and who is willing to use whatever means necessary to grow ever stronger.
King’s website explains the book’s connection to another of his novels:
About The Regulators, Stephen says: “I had been toying with this idea called The Regulators because I had a sticker on my printer that said that. Then one day I pulled up in my driveway after going to the market and the Voice said, ‘Do The Regulators and do it as a Bachman book and use the characters from Desperation but let them be who they’re going to be in this story.’ These books were an opportunity to test the idea of using characters as a repertory company. There are some passages that are word for word the same in both books and there are also little jokes.” He explains further: “It’s just like actors who do Hamlet one night and Bus Stop the next.”
In the last year or so, a host of King adaptations have been announced, including the It prequel series Welcome to Derry; The Boogeyman, a Hulu movie; a limited series of Later starring Lucy Liu; and Bryan Fuller’s take on Christine. Which of these will make it to screens first is not yet clear.
