Yet another Stephen King adaptation is headed your way. And like many of them, this one has been knocking around Hollywood for a while. Fortunately for us, the director making it happen is You Were Never Really Here director Lynne Ramsay, who will adapt King’s 1999 novel The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.
According to THR, Ramsay will direct and co-write The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, about a nine-year-old girl who gets lost walking the Appalachian Trail. As the hours turn into days, she begins to feel she’s being stalked by a supernatural creature, and imagines her favorite baseball star, pitcher Tom Gordon, is by her side as a protector.
Ramsay co-wrote the script with Christy Hall, co-creator of Netflix series I’m Not Okay With This.
An adaptation of The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon previously had horror legend George A. Romero on board to write and direct. Unfortunately, he passed away before that could ever happen, although his wife remains aboard as a producer. Ramsay makes an interesting choice, though. You could definitely say her 2011 film We Need to Talk About Kevin falls into the realm of horror. But I think the way she and star Joaquin Phoenix captured the dark inner life of his tortured character in You Were Never Really Here is an example of what she might do with this, as well, because King’s book, which is only around 200 pages in length, doesn’t include a ton of characters.
SYNOPSIS: On a six-mile hike on the Maine-New Hampshire branch of the Appalachian Trail, nine-year-old Trisha McFarland quickly tires of the constant bickering between her older brother, Pete, and her recently divorced mother. But when she wanders off by herself, and then tries to catch up by attempting a shortcut, she becomes lost in a wilderness maze full of peril and terror. As night falls, Trisha has only her ingenuity as a defense against the elements, and only her courage and faith to withstand her mounting fears. For solace she tunes her Walkman to broadcasts of Boston Red Sox baseball games and follows the gritty performances of her hero, relief pitcher Tom Gordon. And when her radio’s reception begins to fade, Trisha imagines that Tom Gordon is with her – protecting her from an all-too-real enemy who has left a trail of slaughtered animals and mangled trees in the dense, dark woods…
