One of Stephen King‘s most recent novels, Later, which was only published in March of last year, has already been picked up for television. Blumhouse, who is known for producing horror movies and TV shows, has acquired the rights and Lucy Liu is set to star.
Later centres on single mother Tia, a literary agent and her son Jamie, who can see and talk to dead people. The dead always tell Jamie the truth. When Tia’s star author dies before having a chance to finish her latest novel, Jamie communicates with her to find out how it ends. Tia finishes the novel and it’s a roaring success. The novel picks up again at later points, when Jamie is in middle school and high school. At one stage, Tia’s ex-girlfriend Liz, an NYPD detective uses Jamie to help her solve crimes.
“I’ve wanted to work with Jason Blum for years, and now we have two projects together,” King said. “Go, me!” Blumhouse is separately producing an adaptation for Netflix of Mr Harrigan’s Phone, one of the stories in King’s anthology novel If It Bleeds. The Blumhouse founder and CEO responded; “I’ve wanted to work with Stephen King since before I was born, which sounds impossible until you remember that it’s Stephen King.”
The series creator of Later is Raelle Tucker, who was Emmy-nominated for her work on HBO’s True Blood. She has collaborated with Blumhouse Television before, on the anthology series Sacred Lies and Sacred Lies: The Singing Bones, which starred Juliette Lewis.
Tucker said; “Later is terrifying and touching and wonderfully weird — of course it is, it’s Stephen King. Adapting one of my favorite writers of all time, with an incredible partner like Blumhouse and the incomparable Lucy Liu, is a dream come true.”
Lucy Liu is best known for her roles in Charlie’s Angels, Kill Bill and the musical Chicago in the early 2000s. She has also had roles on long-running TV shows, including Ally McBeal in the late-90s and Elementary (in which she played Dr Watson), which ran for over 150 episodes, from 2012-2019.
While we wait for more news about Blumhouse’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Later, check out our guides to the best Netflix horror movies and the best horror movies of 2021.