Raimi is producing the project alongside his longtime Ghost House Pictures partner Robert Tapert. Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, the directing duo behind last year’s “Final Destination: Bloodlines,” are in talks to helm the feature.
Stephen King’s 1996 Horror Novel Is Heading Back to the Screen
Originally published in 1996, “Desperation” occupies a unique place in King’s bibliography. Released alongside its companion novel “The Regulators,” which King published under his Richard Bachman pen name, the two books share many of the same characters while unfolding in alternate realities. The novel previously received a television adaptation in 2006 starring Ron Perlman, Tom Skerritt, Steven Weber, and Annabeth Gish.
Source: IMDb
The story follows a group of strangers whose road trip through a remote stretch of Nevada takes a terrifying turn after they are detained by the sheriff of the nearly abandoned mining town of Desperation. Their captor is soon revealed to be under the influence of Tak, an ancient supernatural force capable of possessing human hosts and manipulating the desert landscape around it. As more survivors converge in the isolated town, escaping becomes a fight against both the entity and the increasingly hostile environment.
Searchlight’s adaptation also reunites one of horror’s most sought-after directing teams with another major studio project. Lipovsky and Stein emerged as two of the genre’s fastest-rising filmmakers following the critical and commercial success of “Final Destination: Bloodlines.” Before that, the pair earned praise for the sci-fi thriller “Freaks” and have since become attached to high-profile projects including “Metal Gear Solid” and an animated “Venom” feature.
The film will also represent a notable first for Raimi, whose career spans genre-defining horror pictures such as the “Evil Dead” franchise, the original “Spider-Man” trilogy, and his latest hit, “Send Help,” proving he still has a remarkable talent for genre productions. Although he has adapted the work of many writers throughout his career, this will be his first project based on a Stephen King story.
