Netflix Is Set to Remake One of Stephen King's Most Iconic Horrors – And Fans Are Outraged
While such outstanding stories as The Eyes of the Dragon, The Long Walk, and Duma Key await their turn on the big screen, producers are opting to adapt novels that have already been made into movies.
If you had to pick the best year for Stephen King 's prose on the big screen, it would undoubtedly be 1983. Three memorable adaptations were released almost simultaneously.
Summer ended with the barking of a dog from Cujo. Fall began with a literature professor's thoughts on fate in The Dead Zone, and just before Christmas, Christine was released.
And Netflix is set to remake one of these three films. More specifically, an adaptation of the original novel.
Netflix Has Struck a Deal to Turn Stephen King's Novel Cujo Into a New Movie
Netflix has announced a new movie based on Stephen King's Cujo. The film will not be a sequel to the cult horror, so it will tell the same story about a confrontation with a mad dog.
The project has not yet found actors, a director and a screenwriter. But it is known that Roy Lee will be the producer. He also worked on the movies Companion and Barbarian.
King Fans Are Not Thrilled That the Already Filmed Novel Is Being Adapted
Any King adaptation is an event that fans welcome with open arms, but this time the news has not been met with enthusiasm. Some feel that 1983's Cujo is a worthy adaptation and there is no need for another, while others are outraged that the same stories from the author are being brought to the big screen.
One of the Reddit users wrote:
“Idk why they just keep adapting the same five King stories and not try their hands at one of the million other stories he’s written and not been brought to the screen?”
And that's a fair point: Salem's Lot has appeared on the small and big screen three times, and Children of the Corn has been adapted a whopping ten times.
A New Cujo Adaptation Is Not Such a Bad Idea
On the other hand, almost half a century later, 1983's Cujo looks really outdated. Today, it is perceived as a rather funny and not very convincing horror movie, despite the plot about the crisis of the Trenton family's happiness.
Even during the filming, the good-natured St. Bernards were a big problem for director Lewis Teague and the film crew – the rescue dogs, covered in fake blood, wagged their tails and were extremely friendly.
Only a frightened child could see the creepy monster in the dirty four-legged dog. It is childhood impressions that fuel the cult of horror – the bitter St. Bernard was remembered as far more menacing and ferocious than he appeared on screen.
Cujo became King's highest-grossing film of 1983, and the dog itself became an avatar of fear that is hardly scary 42 years later.
