A Movie Of This Never-Adapted Stephen King Story From Over 50 Years Ago Is Way More Likely Now

One Stephen King book that was written over 50 years ago has never been turned into a movie, but the recent confirmation of The Running Man‘s remake suggests it could finally reach the big screen. Within the context of classic, timeless horror movies, some of the greatest in the genre have been based on books written by Stephen King. From The Shining and Carrie to Misery and Children of the Corn, the King of Horror’s books have inspired some of the most popular scary films since Brian de Palma adapted Carrie in 1976. Still, numerous Stephen King books have yet to receive movie adaptions, with some such stories being outside the horror genre.

There are over a dozen film adaptations of Stephen King stories currently in development or preparing for release, from Warner Bros’ 2024 iteration of ‘Salem’s Lot to Mike Flanagan’s upcoming The Life of Chuck movie. It’s also been confirmed that Edgar Wright will remake The Running Man, a 1987 sci-fi film based on King’s 1982 story of the same name, which was written under his pseudonym, Richard Bachman. The Running Man isn’t the only Bachman book with a movie already in development, and the recent trend of adapting the works under King’s pseudonym sets up the potential for another book from this collection to finally hit the big screen.

New Film Adaptations Of 2 “Richard Bachman” Books Means A Blaze Movie Could Finally Happen

Richard Bachman’s The Running Man & The Long Walk have movies in the works

Stephen King only has seven books written under Richard Bachman, with two of those stories, The Running Man and The Long Walk, having movies in the works. The other books written under Richard Bachman include Rage, Roadwork, Thinner, The Regulator, and Blaze, the latter of which was published in 2007. However, though the last of his Bachman stories to hit the shelves, Blaze was actually written before Stephen King’s 1974 debut novel Carrie. Despite being penned before Carrie, King wouldn’t publish Blaze for over 30 years after writing it, and the story would curiously be filed under his pseudonym.

Outside of King’s 1977 book Rage, which he let go out of publication in the late 1990s, Blaze is the only Richard Bachman story that has never received a screen adaptation or had one announced to be in the works. However, with two other Bachman tales getting new films, an adaptation of 2007’s Blaze could finally be translated to the screen. Similar to The Running Man, Blaze isn’t a horror story that one might expect of the author, and could make for a compelling movie as it loosely connects to some of the King’s other non-horror books like Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption.

Why It Took Over 30 Years For Stephen King To Finally Publish Blaze

Blaze turned into one of Stephen King’s “trunk” novels

When Stephen King finally published Blaze in 2007 under Richard Bachman’s name, he mentioned in the foreword of the novel that when he read over the manuscript, he didn’t like it, so the story was forgotten about for many years. The story was later found in a library with various other King/Bachman materials by his assistant, and when he reread Blaze, he thought the story was “pretty good.” King later rewrote Blaze’s manuscript and finally worked on getting it published in 2007, and it debuted to mostly positive reviews from critics.

In 2007, Stephen King elaborated on why it had taken so long for Blaze to hit shelves, explaining, “The reason I’ve never done it was because, in my memory at least, it was a tearjerker of a book” (via Lilja’s Library). Blaze certainly is among King’s more sentimental stories, as it follows a con artist with an intellectual disability named Clayton “Blaze” Blaisdell Jr., who kidnaps a wealthy man’s baby in an attempt to fulfill the plans of his deceased friend and criminal partner, George. If the upcoming remake of The Running Man proves to be a hit, then Stephen King‘s long-forgotten Blaze story may finally be able to bring that sentiment to a movie adaptation.

Sources: Lilja’s Library