Stephen King has been giving readers and audiences nightmares for more than five decades. Throughout his prolific career, he has created hundreds of worlds, many of which lean into the realm of terror. His career is so vast that it’s not only hard to find stories of his that haven’t been adapted into other mediums, but also to find stories that haven’t influenced other creatives, whether directly or subconsciously.
In one of his short stories from the 2015 collection The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, a resident of an assisted living facility starts having strange visions of a figure who is following him around, resulting in this man realizing that this is a premonition of his imminent death. In this sense, the story feels reminiscent of a story like Parker Finn’s Smile, in which individuals will witness someone with a dark smile, symbolizing that they have fallen victim to a curse that will result in their upcoming death.
The short story “Mister Yummy” is the next King story to be getting the movie treatment, as confirmed by Deadline. The movie is set to be directed by Ben Young, who previously delivered the Australian crime thriller Hounds of Love.
“Stephen King was one of the first authors I ever read religiously, so getting to work on something that came from his imagination is a genuine honor,” Young shared with the outlet. “What I love about ‘Mister Yummy’ is that the horror is inseparable from the humanity. It’s creepy, moving, character-driven, and exactly the kind of movie I’d line up to see. It’s also the first feature I’ll direct that I’ve also written on since Hounds of Love, so helping shape the script into the kind of Stephen King film I’d want to experience myself has been a real joy.”
Recent years have been a great time to be a King fan, as we’ve gotten adaptations of some of his most beloved works. While 2024 saw the straight-to-streaming release of a new Salem’s Lot, which had been completed for quite some time before its release, it also saw the premiere of the Tom Hiddleston-starring The Life of Chuck. King is mostly known for his works in horror, but Life of Chuck instead leaned into more life-affirming concepts, despite being framed around the titular character’s death.
Last year gave us The Monkey, one of the more difficult-to-adapt narratives that also centered around an omen that signaled someone’s impending death, with director of the movie Osgood Perkins finding creative ways to balance horror and humor. We were also given Edgar Wright’s The Running Man, an adaptation of King’s sci-fi efforts.
What might have been the most thrilling adaptation of King’s works in recent years was The Long Walk, in which young boys were tasked with walking until they simply no longer could. Once they stopped, they’d be executed, but the winner earned tremendous glory. While some of King’s novels have had a short turnaround between publication and adaptation, The Long Walk was the longest stretch of time between publication and adaptation, as it was technically the first novel King ever wrote.
Mister Yummy doesn’t yet have a release date.
