Remember Firestarter? The film based on a Stephen King novel about a pyrokinetic child, with the said child played by a post-ET Drew Barrymore? Thought so, well you’re not the only ones and Universal have set wheels in motion to restart the fire as a franchise.
Joining with the Dino De Laurentiis Company Universal clearly know something we don’t as planning a franchise before a single word has been written, cast member signed, nor director approached is a sure sign of confidence in the project. Mark L. Smith, the man behind the Vacancy films as well as Joe Dante’s The Hole, is scripting but there’s no sign of a director, and it’s not known if the other Mark L. in the equation (the original’s director Mark. L. Lester) is involved. So, what do we know so far?
Here’s a worrying quote from the Variety report,
Plot details for the reboot are being kept under wraps. It’s expected to be loosely based on the original King book, but the main character is to be reinvented with a little more edge.
Luckily Martha De Laurentiis is on hand to clarify the vision,
We see this as a unique, character-driven thriller with a supernatural edge, based on a timeless concept and enhanced by recent visual effects advances,
Universal’s Debbie Liebling fuels the fire,
Firestarter has a great mythology and with Martha and Lorenzo’s vision we believe the franchise can be extended in a new and exciting direction.
Excited, or are Universal lighting fires with spent matches?
Here’s the trailer for the 1984 version for you to get your nostalgic kicks to,
