The Duffer Brothers provided an update on the status of their The Talisman TV series and expressed their excitement about the upcoming Stephen King adaptation.
Unlike most of King's major works, The Talisman has yet to be made into a feature film or TV series, with the tentative direction of Handmaid's Tale filmmaker Mike Barker coming closest in 2019.
The Barker-directed film fell into the hands of Steven Spielberg's Amblin Partners, which acquired the rights to The Talisman before the novel was even published. Given the book's length (656 pages) and the intricate mystical themes involved in young Jack Sawyer's quest, studios and filmmakers saw a traditional picture as a difficult assignment to undertake successfully.
The complexity of showing creatures like werewolves, gargoyles, and living trees while "Flipping" between several universes would need making cuts to fit the amount of content into a fixed time period of screen time. Spielberg abandoned the idea of a feature film in favor of the Duffer Brothers' The Talisman TV series in an effort to get around those challenges.
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The Talisman TV Series: Duffer Brothers Share Update
After taking over in March 2021, the Duffers finally discussed the project's status in an interview with Deadline.
Stranger Things Season 4 saw The Talisman being read to Max by Lucas after Vecna attacked her and left her comatose. On the issue of its impact and the planned adaptation, the Duffers expressed their King obsession and how The Talisman's fantasy/horror components are everything they adore in fiction.
“Until recently, I don’t think it would have worked as television,” Matt Duffer said. “It’s like we’re in this new era now where there’s a kind of a merging of television shows that feel and look like movies because they’re getting these pretty big budgets behind them.”
“So, something like Talisman that even five years ago was not doable, is very doable now. It involves a lot of things that are very similar to Stranger Things,” he added.
“In terms of when it’s going to get made – I don’t know,” Ross Duffer shared. “We just had a meeting about it, but it’s just an outline for the first episode. It’s a ways off but we’re really excited about it.”
The Talisman TV Series Release Date
It is not unexpected that The Talisman TV series has no set release date at this point, given the Duffer Brothers' ongoing work on a Stranger Things spinoff and the last season of their popular series.
The Duffers undoubtedly want to devote all of their attention to the King and Peter Straub material to please readers of the novel because they are two of the most sought-after television showrunners on the market.
If the Duffer Brothers remain on board, their assurance and expertise with a fantastical universe influenced by King and Spielberg in Stranger Things may pave the way for a successful The Talisman TV series.
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