In 2015, a few months before Andy Muschietti signed on to replace Cary Joji Fukunaga as director of the Stephen King adaptation IT (which also led to him directing IT: CHAPTER TWO), it was announced that Muschietti was taking the helm of a different King project – an adaptation of King's short story THE JAUNT. Four years later, THE JAUNT might finally have a chance of moving forward.
Muschietti told Consequence of Sound that THE JAUNT has been in development at Brad Pitt's production company Plan B
for a few years. We tried to crack it and now we finally have a writer that can do it. I would love to. It’s tough to crack because it’s such a great short story, and then you have to expand it into a great film narrative. It took awhile, but now I think we got it. I don’t want to tell too much."
The short story source material was featured in King's Skeleton Crew collection, which can be purchased HERE. THE JAUNT is
a futuristic tale that takes place in the 24th Century, as a father explains the ground rules for “Jaunting,” a form of teleportation the family will be using shortly to go to Mars. The key is that travelers must be under anesthesia for the short journey, or terrible things happen to the mind of those being jaunted around the solar system. Time stands still and one’s brain implodes with too much time to think in an absence of external stimulation. Bad things happen.
I'm pretty sure I have read THE JAUNT at some point, since I have read most of King's work… but if I have read it, I can't say it's a story that has stuck with me. Still, if Muschietti thinks it's a good idea to bring it to the screen, I'll certainly be there to watch it.
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