Stephen King’s Fairy Tale | Paul Greengrass, A24 to bring to screen

Stephen King Fairy Tale
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Stephen King’s Fairy Tale is set to become a ten-part television series. Paul Greengrass is aboard the project.


While the Bourne series of films that made Paul Greengrass’ name continue on without his involvement, the filmmaker has reportedly signed a deal with A24 to produce a TV adaptation of Fairy Tale, the dark fantasy novel by Stephen King. Greengrass has been kept pretty busy as a producer these past few years with his last directorial effort being 2022’s News Of The World starring Tom Hanks.

As we covered back in 2022, Greengrass had written a feature adaptation of King’s 600 page novel and was planning to direct it. The rights ended up at Universal but at some point in the last two years, things have clearly changed.

A24 now seems to have the rights to the project and want it to be a TV series, probably a better idea in truth. It’s a really long book involving an epic journey through a strange land. One sequence based in a dungeon we can vividly recall could take up the running time of a film all by itself.

Despite lots changing with regards to the project, Greengrass is expected to remain involved as a producer and may yet direct, although that part of the deal is yet to be finalised. The story ‘follows a 17-year-old boy named Charlie Reade who inherits the keys to a portal and enters a terrifying world where good and evil are at war and both worlds are at stake.’

Greengrass will work alongside Fringe's J H Wyman who will redraft the existing script and serve as showrunner on the series. King’s book picked up some pretty glowing reviews upon release with its tone being a little reminiscent of his Dark Tower books, but as the title suggests, leaning even further into pure fantasy.

Paul Greengrass of course built his directing style upon a foundation of verite-style filmmaking, using documentary film techniques to bring stunning realism to films such as United 93, 22 July and even his entries in the Bourne series. Should he direct, we’re intrigued to see how he might plan to adapt or use that style in a project so far removed from reality. We’ll bring you more on this one as we hear it.

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