Samuel L. Jackson Joins Stephen King Adaptation ‘Cell’

amuel L. Jackson will be starring in the next film adaptation of a Stephen King book, presumably the fifty-second, this time of his simple 2006 techno-horror, Cell. He will be opposite John Cusack in the lead role, with Tod Williams (Paranormal Activity 2) directing. King co-wrote the script with Adam Alleca, whose most notable past credit is co-writing the (surprisingly good) 2009 remake of The Last House on the Left.

Cell is about a struggling artist named Clayton Ridell who attempts to find his son after everyone becomes mindless and violent after an esoteric signal is sent out over the global cell network. Jackson will be playing Tom McCourt, a former soldier who teams up and escapes Boston with Clayton in the initial chaos.

Financed by Benaroya Pictures and The Genre Company, this isn’t the first time Hollywood has tried to adapt Cell. The apocalyptic tale was first acquired by Dimension Films in 2006, just a couple months after the book was published, with a plan to release in 2009 with Eli Roth as director. Roth then decided to focus on other projects, before eventually dropping out in 2009. King finished a version of the screenplay in December 2009, but that was it until Cusack signed on in October 2012 and Williams joined as director.

Filming is set to begin in January, so King fans won’t have long to wait to see another mediocre King book turned visual. Let’s hope it’s more The Mist and less 1408.

Source: Hollywood Reporter