One of Stephen King’s Most Upsetting Works Is Getting a Remake

I tried to look up how many novels Stephen King has written before I started this piece and could not find a clear answer (at least not one that doesn’t involve me asking an AI bot or doing… math *shudders*). Someone on Reddit said King has written 65 novels, which feels 10 times smaller than I would have expected, but bonergawd$auce has never steered me wrong before! The point is that King makes prolific writers look lazy. His output is unmatched, and adaptations of his work are just as consistent.

Hollywood goes through Stephen King phases. Sometimes, they can’t get his works adapted quickly enough. Because of that (and his lengthy career), some of his writing has been adapted for the big and small screen multiple times. The Shining and The Stand have both been filmed twice, whereas Salem’s Lot has been adapted three times. Lot and The Shining have also seen sequels of their adaptations made, albeit with only the latter being created by King. Even King’s short stories get love on the big and small screens, even if the adaptation barely resembles the story in question (looking at you, The Monkey).

Changes often need to happen in adaptations, I have zero complaints about that as a concept. That doesn’t mean the changes always make sense. Sometimes, changes elevate an idea and incorporate the creative flourishes of the person adapting it, like with Stanley Kubrick’s take on The Shining. This can be preferable to a more beat-by-beat adaptation, like with Mick Garris’s take on The Shining. That’s not a shot at Garris, whose adaptation of The Stand I love. Adaptations need to make changes, whether to make the story fit the medium, or to, I dunno, make sure an audience doesn’t have to watch a kid die from heatstroke and dehydration.

That’s what happens in King’s 1981 novel Cujo (spoilers?). The book is about a killer dog infected by bat rabies who goes on a rampage (but he’s a good boy). He traps a mother and son in a hot car as they fight for their lives. The young boy loses that fight despite his mother’s best efforts, but the dog is eventually defeated. The novel was a hit and was adapted for the big screen in 1983, albeit without a four-year-old facing an insanely upsetting and tragic end. Now, over forty years later, Cujo is getting a chance to finish the job(?).

Deadline is reporting that Netflix will be adapting Cujo as a new feature film. Roy Lee, who has a list of Producing credits almost as long as King’s bibliography, will be Producing the film. They are currently looking for writers, so we’ll see if this gets farther than C.U.J.O. (standing for Canine Unit Joint Operations), which was announced in 2015 but unfortunately(?) never made. Seeing as how Netflix has a bevy of King adaptations in its library, this seems likely to go forward.

It also helps that Hollywood is once again in a King Phase. Numerous adaptations of the author’s work are heading for release within the next couple of years, and only two of them will be created by Mike Flanagan! The Running Man, The Life of Chuck, and Welcome to Derry are all either soon to be released or getting in front of cameras. Like Cujo, The Running Man has a chance to feature an ending more aligned with its original adaptation. It’s just up to the people behind it (Edgar Wright and Glenn Powell) to decide if folks would be turned off by seeing (checks notes) a man fly a plane into a skyscraper. Hoo boy.