EXCLUSIVE: Oculus and Somnia director Mike Flanagan has committed to next helm Gerald’s Game, based on the bestselling novel by Stephen King. Flanagan wrote the script with his writing partner Jeff Howard. Trevor Macy and his Intrepid Pictures banner will produce, as he also did on Flanagan’s two horror films.

Flanagan and Macy originally intended the next picture to be Diver, a film that would have started production this summer. They’ve pushed that picture back and instead will plunge full on into Gerald’s Game, which is casting for a fall start and will be selling here at Cannes. King is very hands on and particular about filmmakers he trusts with rights to his novels. He takes upfront option fees as low as $1 (against a healthy back end), and when you are lucky enough to get one, you try to move fast.

Gerald’s Game revolves around a seemingly harmless contest between a married couple in a remote retreat. It escalates to become a harrowing fight for survival and wife Jessie must confront long-buried demons within her own mind — and possibly lurking in the shadows of her seemingly empty house.

“In the tradition of Misery and Dolores Claiborne, Gerald’s Game is one of the most intense and compelling novels I’ve ever read, and this has been a dream project for many years. Trevor and I are very excited to help translate that experience for an audience,” said Flanagan, who’ll push Diver back to 2015. Flanagan and Howard are repped by APA and Nelson Davis Wetzstein. Paradigm represents King, Macy, Intrepid and film sales for Gerald’s Game.