Netflix goes In the Tall Grass with Stephen King and Joe Hill

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Westworld James Marsden

Stephen King is big business again right now, and Netflix has been contributing to his cinematic resurgence with terrific adaptations of his novel GERALD'S GAME and novella 1922. Now we can add another project to the list of Netflix King movies: IN THE TALL GRASS, an adaptation of a novella King wrote with his son Joe Hill.

SPLICE's Vincenzo Natali has written the screenplay and will be directing the film. Natali's involvement with IN THE TALL GRASS was first announced three years ago.

Originally published in two parts in 2012 issues of the magazine Esquire, IN THE TALL GRASS tells the story of 

a sister and brother who venture into a vast field of grass in Kansas after hearing a boy's cries for help. The siblings soon discover that there may be no way out.

James Marsden (pictured above in HBO's Westworld series) is in talks to star in the film. It's not clear what role Marsden will be taking on – I would guess that he's not playing the brother mentioned in the description, but rather a strange man that the siblings encounter in the grass.

IN THE TALL GRASS is scheduled to start filming in Toronto this summer. The adaptation is being produced by Steve Hoban, Jimmy Miller, and M. Riley.

If you'd like to familiarize yourself with the novella before the movie reaches Netflix but don't want to track down those issues of Esquire, IN THE TALL GRASS is available in e-book and audiobook formats (the audiobook was read by DON'T BREATHE's Stephen Lang). To purchase either of those, head over to Amazon.

Source: THR

About the Author

Cody is a news editor and film critic, focused on the horror arm of JoBlo.com, and writes scripts for videos that are released through the JoBlo Originals and JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channels. In his spare time, he's a globe-trotting digital nomad, runs a personal blog called Life Between Frames, and writes novels and screenplays.