Exorcist showrunner to pen Stephen King’s The Tommyknockers movie

Variety reports that former The Exorcist showrunner Jeremy Slater is set to write the screenplay for Universal Pictures’ film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Tommyknockers. James Wan and Michael Clear (The Nun, Annabelle: Creation) will be teaming up with Roy Lee (IT) to produce the film.

RELATED: Stephen King’s The Tommyknockers Lands at Universal

“I’m pretty sure this is the first book I ever bought with my own money. It was 1988 and I was 10 years old. I’d borrowed other King novels from various friends and libraries, but this was the first one that was MINE,” Slater wrote on Twitter. “In meetings I always joke that I was raised by the two Stephens—King and Spielberg—but that’s not far from the truth. While other kids were playing sports or doing whatever cool kids do, I was spending the night in the Overlook, or hanging out in the sewers beneath Derry….Now, thirty years later, I’m beyond thrilled to be part of the team bringing THE TOMMYKNOCKERS to life. It just feels…right, you know? Like coming home…I can’t wait for you to visit Haven. It’s a hell of a town. Just don’t go in the woods.”

The 1987 horror novel follows the story of writer Bobbi Anderson who has discovered an alien object that was buried in the woods near her home which turned out to be an alien spaceship. The Tommyknockers are the aliens who are inhabiting the spaceship. Her discovery has lead to many unfortunate consequences that severely affected the residents of the small town of Haven in Maine.

Last April, it was reported that Universal has won the rights to the Stephen King novel beating out Sony Pictures and Netflix. Wan from Atomic Monster and Lee from Vertigo are joining producer Larry Sanitsky (the 1993 TV miniseries based on The Tommyknockers) to work on the film.

The Tommyknockers is the second best-selling Stephen King book in its hardcover release having even outsold IT. The previous Tommyknockers miniseries starred Jimmy Smits and Marg Helgenberger. There was talk of doing a miniseries version of the book back in 2013 for NBC but it failed to materialize.

Many of Stephen King’s books are currently being adapted into features films and TV series such as Castle Rock, The Bone Church, Doctor Sleep, In the Tall Grass and Pet Sematary.