Stephen King‘s killer dog horror Cujo is set to be adapted into a new film for Netflix.
King’s novel, originally published in 1981, was first adapted for screen in 1983. The film starred Dee Wallace as a mother desperate to protect her son from a 200-pound St. Bernard that, after being bitten by a rabid bat, turns into a ferocious, blood-hungry killing machine.
When the mother and son become stuck in her small car that won’t start, they must decide whether to fend off the oversized hellhound or risk catching heatstroke in vehicle.
The full synopsis of King’s novel reads: “Outside a peaceful town in central Maine, a monster is waiting. Cujo is a two-hundred-pound Saint Bernard, the best friend Brett Camber has ever had. One day, Cujo chases a rabbit into a cave inhabited by sick bats and emerges as something new altogether.
“Meanwhile, Vic and Donna Trenton, and their young son Tad, move to Maine. They are seeking peace and quiet, but life in this small town is not what it seems…
“As Tad tries to fend off the terror that comes to him at night from his bedroom closet, and as Vic and Donna face their own nightmare of a marriage on the rocks, there is no way they can know that a monster, infinitely sinister, waits in the daylight.”
With the new Netflix adaptation still in the early stages of development, further details including casting are yet to be announced.
The new project comes on the back of another recent King adaptation – The Monkey. Based on his short story of the same name, the film is directed by Longlegs filmmaker Osgood Perkins and centres around a cursed wind-up monkey that violently kills everyone around it.
In a four-star review of the film, NME wrote: “The Monkey is produced by James Wan, the director who brought us the Saw franchise – a series of films all about finding inventive ways to dismember human beings. But The Monkey feels different to Saw, largely thanks to James’ double turn as two brothers at each other’s throats. You’d be hard-pressed to call it moving, but at least there’s an emotional narrative that drags us through the grisly bits. Sick, dark and laugh-out-loud nuts.”