Of the many Stephen King adaptations out there, few engender the loyalty of 1983’s Cujo. As loyal as man’s best friend, some might say. Well, we’ll see how far that loyalty goes because Netflix is set to give us a new take on the canine horror flick.
Deadline reports that a new adaptation of King’s horror novel Cujo is in the works at Netflix. Roy Lee is set to produce the film, with a search underway to find screenwriters for it.
First published in 1981, Cujo follows a friendly St. Bernard that gets bitten by a rabid bat in the woods of Castle Rock, Maine. When the infection sets in, Cujo becomes a massive, lumbering killing machine, starting with his abusive owner. Cujo’s attacks grow fiercer, and he traps mother and son Donna and Tad inside of their broken down Ford Pinto under the relentless summer heat. They are forced to decide between fighting against the rabid canine or risking heatstroke.
The film adaptation was directed by Lewis Teague, who would follow that with Cat’s Eye, another one based on a King book. Dee Wallace and Danny Pintauro (Who’s the Boss FTW!!) starred, but were upstaged by the four-legged fiend.
King adaptations are either in theaters now or in the works. Oz Perkins’ The Monkey can be seen right now, soon to be joined by Mike Flanagan’s The Life of Chuck, Edgar Wright’s The Running Man, and Francis Lawrence’s The Long Walk. [Deadline]
