First Image From Stephen King’s ‘Gerald’s Game’ Adaptation Debuts

With how many different Stephen King adaptations come out this year, it’s easy to lose track of the ones that will debut later this year. As announced with the first wave of programming at Austin’s Fantastic Fest, the Mike Flanagan-directed adaptation of King’s Gerald’s Game got an all new image, revealing our first look at the thriller that will be heading to Netflix.

The book’s synopsis is as follows:

“Once again, Jessie Burlingame has been talked into submitting to her husband, Gerald’s, kinky sex games—something that she’s frankly had enough of, and they never held much charm for her to begin with. So much for a “romantic getaway” at their secluded summer home. After Jessie is handcuffed to the bedposts—and Gerald crosses a line with his wife—the day ends with deadly consequences. Now Jessie is utterly trapped in an isolated lakeside house that has become her prison—and comes face-to-face with her deepest, darkest fears and memories. Her only company is that of the various voices filling her mind… as well as the shadows of nightfall that may conceal an imagined or very real threat right there with her…”

Carla Gugino, Henry Thomas, Bruce Greenwood and Kate Siegel all star in the film.

Considering the original story focuses mainly on one woman trapped in a room all by herself, bringing that concept to life was much more easily said than done. Flanagan recently revealed some of the challenges he faced developing the project while a guest on the Post Mortem podcast.

“It had taken me years to come up with a mechanism that I thought would make it somatic without changing the books,” the director revealed. “The temptation to make big changes in an adaptation of a story like that was huge and I really didn’t want to do that.”

More than just a job, Flanagan is clearly passionate about the project, revealing that he had “been chasing this for a long time. I was 19 years old when I read it for the first time, and I put it down and had goose flesh all over my arms. I thought it was such an astonishing story.”

Despite these challenges of adapting the story, the filmmaker pursued the opportunity at every chance he got.

“When I first moved to Los Angeles, I carried a hardcover in my bag whenever I would take general meetings,” Flanagan confessed. “Anyone who’d ask me what my dream project was, I’d pull it out, and [the response I’d get was] either they were familiar with the book and said it’s unfilmable, or it wasn’t available.”

The film will premiere at Fantastic Fest in late September and will most likely debut on Netflix before the end of the year.

Photo Credit: Intrepid Pictures