Stephen King Says Netflix's Mr. Harrigan's Phone Adaptation Is "Brilliant"

08/12/2022 11:52 pm EDT

With what seems like a hundred different adaptations of Stephen King novels coming out every year, it's worth noting when the author himself actually has something nice to say about one of them. Netflix is set to debut their feature film version of Mr. Harrigan's Phone later this year, which is based on the novella by King. Taking to Twitter, King revealed that he's seen a near complete version of the adaptation and he has high praise for what writer/director John Lee Hancock was able to accomplish. 

King tweeted: "I have seen a close-to-finished cut of MR. HARRIGAN'S PHONE, written and directed by John Lee Hancock, and it's nothing short of brilliant. Donald Sutherland, Jaeden Martell. Netflix. This fall." As King mentioned, IT and Knives Out star Jaeden Martell appears in the film alongside Invasion of the Body Snatchers' star Donald Sutherland, who will play the titular character. Mr. Harrigan's Phone was produced by Blumhouse and Ryan Murphy.

Published as part of the If It Bleeds collection of Novellas, Mr. Harrigan's Phone follows a young boy in Maine that befriends the retired and titular Mr. Harrigan, working for him around the house into his youth and eventually buying him a smart phone. After Mr. Harrigan dies he places his phone in his pocket before the funeral, and receives a mysterious reply after leaving a voice mail for him one night. Blumhouse Television's Chris McCumber and Jeremy Gold along with Scott Greenberg executive produced the film adaptation as well.

Mr. Harrigan's Phone marks the latest Stephen King adaptation from Blumhouse which recently released a reboot of Firestarter. Blumhouse is also working on an adaptation of The Breathing Method from Sinister director Scott Derrickson. If it were up to Jason Blum however he'd have more telling us one adaptation he's eager to make.

"We didn't get it, but I'd love to do The Dead Zone. That would be cool, to reboot that in some way would be cool," Blum confirmed with ComicBook.com in a previous interview. "We don't have it, I know we don't have it. It's sad that we don't have it but we don't."  

As opposed to other Stephen King books which have their rights snatched up for adaptation as one, If It Bleeds had the rights to all four of its stories split up across multiple parties, though Netflix will be home to three out of them. In addition to Mr. Harrigan's Phone, the story Rat has been picked up by Ben Stiller who will apparently produce, direct, and star; and The Life Of Chuck has been picked up by Darren Aronofsky's Protozoa, currently only attached to produce the adaptation. The titular "If It Bleeds" story has not seemingly been optioned by a production company as of yet.

(Cover photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images for Warner Bros.)

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