Zac Efron Leads! John Carpenter Scores! Trailer for Stephen King Adaptation ‘Firestarter’ Arrives

Zac Efron is now officially stepping into the role of being a daddy as he leads Firestarter – an upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s 1980 novel of the same name. The upcoming horror has incorrectly been dubbed as a remake of the John Carpenter directed 1984 adaptation by many, yet seems to be more of a standalone interpretation of King’s novel. Thankfully horror maestro Carpenter still has some involvement, scoring the upcoming Blumhouse feature with son Cody Carpenter, and Daniel Davies.

This marks Efron’s latest foray into the horror world, after leading surprisingly excellent grisly true crime feature Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile which saw him step into the role of Ted Bundy. The actor leads the feature as Andy, the father of a young girl who has the power to conjure up destructive fire. Check out the full, official synopsis below:

“For more than a decade, parents Andy (Zac Efron) and Vicky (Sydney Lemmon) have been on the run, desperate to hide their daughter Charlie (Ryan Kiera Armstrong; American Horror Story: Double Feature, The Tomorrow War) from a shadowy federal agency that wants to harness her unprecedented gift for creating fire into a weapon of mass destruction. Andy has taught Charlie how to defuse her power, which is triggered by anger or pain. But as Charlie turns 11, the fire becomes harder and harder to control. After an incident reveals the family’s location, a mysterious operative (Michael Greyeyes) is deployed to hunt down the family and seize Charlie once and for all. Charlie has other plans.”

Keith Thomas of The Vigil fame is at the helm for this one, adapting a screenplay from Halloween Kills scribe Scott Teems.

Firestarter arrives in US cinemas on May 13, 2022, expect a similar release frame in the UK.