‘The Boogeyman’ Director Unpacks His Ambitions for the Stephen King Adaptation: ‘I Wanted This to Be the Definitive Version’
thewrap.comThe Boogeyman” is here.Based on the short story by Stephen King (originally published in a 1973 issue of Playboy competitor Cavalier and collected in King’s 1978 anthology “Night Shift”), the slender story was first adapted by “A Quiet Place” writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods in 2018 for 20th Century Fox.
When Disney acquired the company in 2019, development was canceled, only to be revived in late 2021. That’s when Akeela Cooper (“Malignant”) and Mark Heyman (“Black Swan”) also took a crack at the story and Rob Savage, who had made a splash during the pandemic with his low budget horror film “Host,” was brought on as director.The resulting film is very different from the King story, following a young girl (“Yellowjackets” breakout Sophie Thatcher) and her family (including psychiatrist dad Chris Messina and younger sister Vivien Lyra Blair) as they death both with the recent death of their beloved mother and a supernatural entity methodically stalking them.
That’s a lot to deal with!TheWrap spoke with Savage about how he joined the project, what concessions he had to make while adapting the source material and what his very favorite Stephen King adaptation is (besides “The Boogeyman,” we’re assuming).Take me through the development process – it was dead for a minute and then it came back to life.
When did you get involved?Just as it was being resuscitated is where I jumped onboard. I came onboard just after “Host.” There was already a script by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods that ended up being… Our movie ended up being very different, but they’ve laid the groundwork.
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