Long a passion project for horror maestro George A. Romero, an adaptation of Stephen King's 1999 tome The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon sadly eluded him, falling into limbo after the director's death in 2017. But now his ex-wife Christine Romero has picked up the project, figuring that if anyone can get a King adaptation up and running, it's now.
Tom Gordon is about young Trisha McFarland, who gets lost while hiking with her recently divorced mother and brother in the woods. Nine years old and scared of the dark, the girl winds up stumbling through the woods for nine days, wandering farther and farther from civilization even as she tries to make her way back home. As she walks, dehydration, hunger and exhaustion cause her to hallucinate, talking to several people, including her idol, a baseball player named Tom Gordon.
But she also begins to believe that she’s being stalked by a supernatural beast known as The God of the Lost, and soon her ordeal becomes a test of both her sanity and her ability to fight for her life.
Roy Lee, who has seen success with King's work thanks to the It films is on as one of the producers, and the search is on for a writer to turn the story into a new script. "I’m thrilled that my book is being brought to the screen, and that George’s company is involved. Chris has worked long and hard to make this project happen," said King in a statement picked up by The Hollywood Reporter. It: Chapter Two, meanwhile, arrives here on 6 September.