Jonathan Demme To Save JFK With Stephen King’s 11/22/63
Jonathan Demme hasn’t made a narrative film since Rachel Getting Married way back in 08, but he’s gearing up to go again - and with a genre picture, no less. He has optioned Stephen King’s upcoming book 11/22/63, which is about a modern day high school teacher who goes back in time and tries to muck with history leading up to the Kennedy assassination. The official synopsis has what is perhaps my favorite line of writing in 2011:
Not much later, Jake’s friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958.
King’s novel is coming out November 8th, my birthday. Mr. King, you didn’t have to! I don’t know why he isn’t waiting until the end of the month to release it, though.
Anyway, Demme will write, direct and produce the movie. Demme has done genre before, of course, with Silence of the Lambs, and he went supernatural with Beloved. 11/22/63 seems an order of magnitude more genre, though. Also, I wonder how the financing will work. A period piece like this would cost a dime.
