John Lee Hancock is to write and direct an adaptation of Stephen King’s ‘Mr. Harrigan’s Phone’ for Netflix.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the 63-year-old filmmaker – who has helmed ‘The Blind Side’ and ‘Saving Mr. Banks’ – will work on the project with prolific producers Jason Blum and Ryan Murphy.
The story comes from the ‘If It Bleeds’ collection of novels and follows a young boy who befriends an older billionaire who lives in his local area as they bond over the elderly man’s first iPhone.
However, when the man dies, the boy discovers he is able to communicate with his friend from beyond the grave by leaving voicemails on the phone that was buried with him.
It will mark the latest King project for Netflix, with the streaming service having previously adapted ‘Gerald’s Game’, ‘1922’ and ‘In The Tall Grass’.
Carla Hacken will produce the project with Blum and Murphy, with Marci Wiseman and Jeremy Gold serving as executive producers for Blumhouse Television.
Blumhouse are also working on a remake of another of the horror icon’s stories, ‘Firestarter’, for Universal.
King recently revealed that he had a unique idea for a ‘Friday The 13th’ story from franchise villain Jason Voorhees’ point of view.
The 72-year-old author wrote on social media: "The best novel idea I never wrote (and probably never will is I JASON, the first-person narrative of Jason Voorhees, and his hellish fate:
"Killed over and over again at Camp Crystal Lake. What a hellish, existential fate! (sic)"
The franchise – which includes 12 movies, a TV series, novels and comic books – mainly focuses on Jason, who drowned at Camp Crystal Lake as a young boy and always featured as either the killer or the motivation for them.