One doesn’t have to look far back into history to discover evidence of a Stephen King novel being uncomfortably squeezed into a standard-length feature film. As I noted in my CinemaBlend review, Gary Dauberman’s Salem’s Lot does an effective job with King’s story and characters, but it suffers from lacking the source material’s scope. It’s often been the case that miniseries are much better fits for the author’s expansive narratives – which was why I was very happy to learn the latest news about the adaptation of Fairy Tale: after initially being developed as a movie, it’s now moving to the small screen.
That’s just the lead story of this week’s edition of The King Beat – which is so jam packed with news that I don’t have room to fully discuss the surprisingly funny trailer for Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey that dropped on Tuesday. In addition to the news about Fairy Tale, there are casting updates for both Edgar Wright’s remake of The Running Man and MGM+’s The Institute, and we now know when we’ll get to read the upcoming anthology with short stories set in the world of The Stand. There’s a lot to go over, so let’s dig in!
A24 Is Getting Into The Stephen King Game Developing Fairy Tale As A TV Series
It took practically no time at all for an adaptation of Stephen King’s Fairy Tale to enter development. The novel first arrived in stores in September 2022, and it was less than a month later that the news broke of writer/director Paul Greengrass developing it as a feature. Since then, little has been reported about its progress, but that changed in a big way this week, as the project has pivoted and is becoming a 10-part miniseries.
According to Deadline, Fairy Tale has changed studios, but Paul Greengrass is still attached as a key creative. According to the trade, it was deemed “impossible” for the source material to be packed into a feature, and Universal let the project go (they had initially acquired the project in what was described at the time as a “heated auction”). A24 is now backing the miniseries – the studio’s first Stephen King-related project – and Greengrass is teaming up with Fringe and Almost Human writer J.H. Wyman to expand Greengrass’ film script (Wyman will take the reins as showrunner).
There is expectation that the Bourne franchise/Captain Phillips filmmaker will be contributing to Fairy Tale as a director as well, but deals have reportedly not yet been completed.
The fantasy novel is about Charlie Reade, a teenager living in Illinois who ends up saving the life of his elderly neighbor one day while out for a walk and hearing a dog’s distressed barking. He ends up taking care of the pet while the old man, Howard Bowditch, is in the hospital, and he becomes Howard’s caretaker after he’s discharged. During their time together, Charlie begins to make some strange discoveries about his new curmudgeonly friend, and it ultimately leads him to discovering a fantastical alternate world.
As much as I love to see new Stephen King movies on the big screen, I love that this medium switch is happening, as it’s clearly what’s best for the source material. A significant part of what’s great about the novel is the genre change that it executes only after earning it. Before it becomes a full-on fantasy story, it begins as a coming-of-age tale about a boy grappling with higher powers in the universe after he makes a prayer that his widower father stop drinking. This character development, and the creation of a bond between Charlie, Howard, and Howard’s dog, Radar, is all essential, and one can imagine it being cut and hollowed out to be a 30-minute first act of a film that puts a much heavier focus on the alternate universe the protagonist discovers.
With five times the narrative real estate provided by the miniseries medium, Fairy Tale can treat this part of the story with the attention it deserves before providing audiences with a fantastical adventure full of wild oddities, magic, and evil monsters.
On a side note, I’m also thrilled to see A24 – one of the most respected indie studios of the moment – getting into the Stephen King game. This news comes in the same year in which Neon has become attached to two upcoming King movies (the aforementioned The Monkey and Mike Flanagan’s The Life Of Chuck), and because of established genre reputations, it’s exciting to see distribution diversification beyond the major studios and streamers.
The only bit of bad news here is that the trade report doesn’t mention the speed of Fairy Tale’s development and when it might be targeting a start of production – but as more is reported about the project, you can be sure to find updates here on CinemaBlend.
Both The Running Man And The Institute Have Added To Their Casts
Before the end of 2024, two more Stephen King adaptations are scheduled to start filming, and they’ve both been active in recent weeks building their respective casts. On the movie side, there’s Edgar Wright’s remake of The Running Man, and on Team Small Screen is the upcoming series based on The Institute. In the last couple of days, both have seen their ensembles grow.
Per a report from Deadline, Karl Glusman has become the latest actor to join the cast of The Running Man, which is set to hone much closer to its dystopian science-fiction source material than the 1987 action film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Glusman’s standout credits include two collaborations with writer/director Alex Garland (the TV series Devs and 2024’s Civil War) and he recently starred alongside Austin Butler, Jodie Comer and Tom Hardy in Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders. Sadly, we don’t know what role he’ll be playing in the new Edgar Wright movie, which already has Glen Powell, Katy O’Brian and Daniel Ezra in its cast.
The Running Man is being produced by Paramount Pictures and will be in theaters November 21, 2025.
Sadly, we don’t know exactly when MGM+ is planning to start debuting episodes of The Institute, but the developing show has rounded out its cast with three new additions. Created by director/executive producer Jack Bender and writer/executive producer Benjamin Cavell, the series is set to be based on the 2019 Stephen King novel, and the casting department has been busy in recent months. It was first reported in June that Mary Louise-Parker and Ben Barnes would play key roles, and the ensemble has been growing ever since.
This week, it was revealed that the eight-episode series has added Brendan Beiser as a regular and Mary Walsh and Jordan Alexander in recurring roles. All three will be playing characters who exist outside the titular Institute – which is a facility that houses and experiments on kidnapped children who are believed to have telekinetic or telepathic abilities. Young actor Joe Freeman has landed the role of protagonist Luke Ellis, and as previously reported in The King Beat, he is joined in the series by Fionn Laird (Under the Banner of Heaven), Hannah Galway (Under the Banner of Heaven), Julian Richings (Beau Is Afraid), Robert Joy (Julia), Viggo Hanvelt (Our Christmas Mural), Arlen So (Something Rotten), Birva Pandya (The Umbrella Academy), Dan Beirne (Ginny & Georgia), Martin Roach (Suits) and Jane Luk (Streams Flow From A River).
Filming of The Institute will commence in Nova Scotia before the end of the year.
The End Of The World As We Know It: New Tales Of Stephen King’s The Stand Is Now Available For Pre-Order
It was right around this time last year that Constant Readers everywhere first learned about a very cool Stephen King-related literary project that was in the works. With approval and support from King, writer/editors Brian Keene and Christopher Golden have been working hard to put together The End Of The World As We Know It: Tales Of Stephen King’s The Stand – which, as its title suggests, is an anthology of stories set within the world of The Stand. A few details about the project have leaked out since then (like the fact that it will include stories set outside of the United States), but we got perhaps the most important pre-release news of all this week: a release date.
The short story collection, which will include an introduction written by Stephen King, is set to be published by Simon & Schuster, and it will be heading to stores on August 19, 2025. Both hardcover and eBook options are now available for pre-order from outlets including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million and Bookshop.org.
The full list of contributors to The End Of The World As We Know It: Tales Of Stephen King’s The Stand has not yet been revealed, but it includes a number of talented and popular writers including Paul Tremblay, Josh Malerman, Richard Chizmar, Bev Vincent, S.A. Cosby, Tananarive Due, Robert Cargill, Alex Segura, and Wayne Brady.
That wraps up this week’s edition of The King Beat, but I’ll be back with all the latest news from the world of Stephen King next Thursday here on CinemaBlend.
