JT Mollner, the filmmaker behind last year’s culthit “Strange Darling” and the screenwriter for Stephen King adaptation “The Long Walk”, will customize King’s novel “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon” for Lionsgate. Mollner will write and direct the project. Erin Westerman, President, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, made the announcement on Thursday.
The original book follows a young girl who is separated from her family in the forest and encounters several difficulties, including a run-in with a bloodthirsty bear. To handle, she evokes Tom Gordon, who at that time played for Boston Red Sox (King’s favorite team). In 2004, a pop-up version of the story was released, designed by Kees Moerbeek and illustrated by Alan Dingman.
Mollner is not the first filmmaker to take a crack on the story. It was a passion project by George A. Romero’s, who was not allowed to make the film before his death in 2017. (Romero’s wife, Chris Romero, remains linked to this project as a producer.) In 2020, it was announced that Lynne Ramsay, head of “You were never right here” and the upcoming “Die. Now Mollner, whose “Long Walk” adaptation, is directed by Francis Lawrence, to theaters on September 12, the adaptation.
Roy Lee will produce together with Romero, Ryan Silbert, Andrew Childs and Nathan Kahane. Steven Schneider will serve as an executive producer, as is Mollner.
Westerman said in an official statement, “JT is a filmmaker that we believe has a bright future. Throughout his work, he creates characters, and especially young characters, who are so convincing, heartbreaking and emotional that they show up from the screen – and of course what Stephen King does on the page. Adapt and direct this King fan.”
Meredith Wieck will monitor the project for Lionsgate together with Pavan Kalidindi. Phil Strina negotiated the deal on behalf of the studio.
Mollner is represented by Uta, World Builder Entertainment and Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner Auerbach Hynick Jaime Levine Samine.
