Having just made his latest stab at scares with The Other Side Of The Door, director Johannes Roberts is turning his attention to the work of a man known for horror, but adept at heartwarming tales at the same time. Roberts planning to adapt Stephen King's Hearts In Atlantis for the big screen.
"But kindly Empire friends," we hear you asking, "wasn't that story already adapted into 2001's eponymous film starring Anthony Hopkins?" There is indeed a film with that title, but in book form, Atlantis comprises two novellas and three short stories, and Scott Hicks' film used two of the other stories.
Now Roberts and co-writer Ernest Riera are planning to turn the main tale into a film called Hearts, which focuses on a group of college freshmen who becomes addicted to a competitive card game called Hearts. The challenge begins to consume them, and one by one they wash out of the institution, a dangerous prospect when life outside college meant being drafted to fight in Vietnam.
“As a teenager, discovering Stephen King’s books and their cinematic counterparts was what led me to want to become a filmmaker,” says Roberts in a statement picked up by Variety. “The story Hearts In Atlantis is my favorite piece of King’s writing. Turning this story into a movie had been a lifelong dream.” For his part, King has given the thumbs up to the new movie.
As for the next adaptation of King's work, that would be The Dark Tower, which will hit UK cinemas on February 17.