Must-Watch Short Film Based on Stephen King’s THE TALISMAN Soon to Be a Feature Film
While Amblin Entertainment only recently named the director for their upcoming adaptation of The Talisman (based on the horror/fantasy novel by Stephen King and Peter Straub and released in 1984) the project was first announced way back in October of 2017. And while The Handmaid’s Tale director Mike Barker will be at the helm, there was another horror practitioner who once lobbied hard for the job.
Related Article: THE TALISMAN is the Latest Stephen King Novel Getting the Feature Film Treatment
Mathieu Ratthe is best known for the first-person POV horror/sci-fi flick The Gracefield Incident, released in 2017. In 2008, however, the budding filmmaker was so keen to direct an adaptation of The Talisman, he produced a stunning 6-minute short film that was also meant to serve as proof-of-concept for his overall vision for a potential feature.
“My main objective for creating this piece is to demonstrate my directing ability and my vision to the producers who own the rights to the story: Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy,” Ratthe explained upon the film’s online release. “Among the key players who lent their support to this project are Cameron Bright (X-Men: The Last Stand, Birth) who starred in the leading role, the Montreal-based company Buzz Image (300; The Aviator) who created the visual effects. The scene was shot in two days.”
While we’ve got to assume that Amblin did their due diligence in hiring Barker to direct their upcoming adaptation of The Talisman, and that the best candidate got the job, we can only hope that the end result looks as good as Ratthe’s short film. Honestly, it’s fantastic. Give it a spin at the top of the article.
The Talisman Synopsis:
Why had twelve-year-old Jack Sawyer’s
mother frantically moved the two of them from Rodeo Drive to a New York City
apartment to the Alhambra, a fading ocean resort and shuttered amusement park
in New Hampshire? Who or what is she running from? She is dying . . . and even
young Jack knows she can’t outrun death. But only he can save her—for he has
been chosen to search for a prize across an epic landscape of dangers and lies,
a realm of innocents and monsters, where everything Jack loves is on the line.
What do you think of Mathieu Ratthe’s vision of The Talisman? Are you excited Amblin in moving forward on an adaptation of the film with The Handmaid’s Tale director Mike Barker at the helm? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram!
