Hulu scares up a new Stephen King project with 'The Boogeyman' film adaptation

After the success of 11.22.63 and Castle Rock, Hulu is once again dipping back into the spooky Stephen King Macroverse for a feature-length adaptation of "The Boogeyman."

According to Deadline, which first broke the news, Rob Savage (Host, Dashcam) has been tapped to direct the project, which hails from producers Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen of 21 Laps Entertainment. Black Swan co-screenwriter Mark Heyman is finishing up the script with some help from A Quiet Place's Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. Earlier drafts were submitted by Malignant co-writer, Akela Cooper. Principal photography is scheduled to kick off in New Orleans in early 2022.

"Can't begin to tell you how surreal it is to see a picture of my stupid face next to Stephen King," Savage joked while confirming the news on Instagram.

"Thrilled to help bring this amazing Stephen King story to life alongside the incredible talents of our friends, Mark Heyman and Akela Cooper!" added Beck and Woods in a post of their own. The creative duo also showed off a picture of the short story, which they annotated as part of their screenwriting "Field Notes."

One of King's many, many short stories, "The Boogeyman" was originally published in a 1973 issue of Cavalier before it was collected in 1978's Night Shift (it contains such classics as "Gray Matter", "Jerusalem's Lot", "Strawberry Spring", and "Children of the Corn"). The tale of terror is framed via a conversation between a psychiatrist and their patient, who was traumatized as a child by the titular entity. The story ends with the psychiatrist revealing himself to be the Boogeyman in disguise — much to the patient's horror.

Per the official logline provided by Deadline, the 2-hour film will greatly deviate from the source material by centering the narrative around a teenage girl and her little brother who find themselves stalked by the "sadistic" Boogeyman following the unexpected death of their mother. The two characters must convince their grieving father of the threat before it's too late.

The Boogeyman is the third Night Shift-related project of the last year after Chapelwaite (an Epix series based on "Jerusalem's Lot") and an upcoming podcast adaptation of "Strawberry Spring" from Audio Up Media.

Other stories — like "Children of the Corn", "Gray Matter", "Cat's Eye", "Trucks", and "The Mangler" — have already been translated into well-known adaptations for film and television. Based on "Trucks", 1986's Maximum Overdrive remains the only one to be helmed by King himself.