Lionsgate is sticking with Stephen King. The Long Walk is set to release this fall, and they’re just optioned rights to adapt King’s 1999 novel The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.
The company has enlisted Strange Darling filmmaker and The Long Walk scribe JT Mollner to write and direct the adaptation, THR reports today.
The novel follows the harrowing survival story of a nine-year-old girl named Trisha as she struggles to stay alive after getting lost in the woods alone. With only her Walkman radio playing baseball games to keep her company, the girl’s love of pitcher Tom Gordon begins to manifest in hallucinations that may save her life.
“JT is a filmmaker we believe has a bright future,” said Lionsgate Motion Picture Group president Erin Westerman. “Throughout his work, he creates characters, and especially young characters, that are so compelling, heartbreaking, and emotional that they pop off the screen. And of course, that’s what Stephen King does on the page as well. The story of survival and perseverance in The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is timeless. We’ve loved this tale for a long time, and JT is the perfect choice to adapt and direct this King fan favorite.”
Strange Darling producer Roy Lee will reteam with Mollner for Tom Gordon. Also producing will be Christine Romero, Ryan Silbert, and Andrew Childs. Nathan Kahane, who is transitioning from his post as Lionsgate Motion Picture Group president to independent producer, will also join the project in a producer’s capacity. Meredith Wieck will oversee the project for Lionsgate alongside Pavan Kalidindi.
This isn’t the first attempt at launching an adaptation of Tom Gordon off the ground; a previous version of this project was announced in 2020 with Christy Hall (Netflix’s “I Am Not Okay With This”) and Lynne Ramsay (We Need to Talk About Kevin, You Were Never Really Here) attached.
Stay tuned.
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