Strap in, Stephen King fans: more stars are joining the adaptation game. Deadline reports that Mare of Easttown star Joe Tippett has joined the cast of Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, an adaptation of King’s short story of the same name from 2020’s If It Bleeds. Tippett is set to play the father of Craig, the young protagonist played by It’s Jaeden Martell, alongside Donald Sutherland as the film’s titular reclusive billionaire.
The film, directed by John Lee Hancock for Netflix, follows young Craig as he befriends the elderly, reclusive Mr. Harrigan, bonding over books and an iPhone the boy purchases for the eccentric billionaire. But, when Harrigan passes away, Craig will discover that “dead” does not necessarily mean “gone” when he finds himself able to communicate with his deceased friend through the iPhone, which was buried with him.
Mr. Harrigan’s Phone serves as Netflix’s fourth venture into adapting King’s work, having achieved success with 1922, based on the author’s 2010 novella; the highly disturbing Gerald’s Game, from the 1992 novel of the same name; and In the Tall Grass, adapted from the novel co-written by King and his son, Joe Hill.
The new adaptation is one of several King films currently in the works, including New Line’s Salem’s Lot, as well as versions of Christine, The Tommyknockers, Firestarter, and Rest Stop. Mr. Harrigan’s Phone is not the only story from If It Bleeds being adapted either. Two other stories from the four novella collection, Rat and The Life of Chuck, have been optioned by Adam Sandler and Darren Aronofsky’s Protozoa Pictures, respectively.
The film is produced by Jason Blum, Ryan Murphy, and Carla Hacken, with executive producers Chris McCumber and Jeremy Gold for Blumhouse Television, and Scott Greenberg. This isn’t Tippett’s first time working with Blumhouse, either, as he previously worked with the studio on The Good Lord Bird, starring Ethan Hawke, Daveed Diggs, and Joshua Caleb Johnson.
Mr. Harrigan’s Phone is expected to arrive on Netflix sometime in 2022.