By MICHAEL GINGOLD

There’s some high-powered horror talent attached to this adaptation.

The announcement just came down that Osgood Perkins (THE BLACKCOAT’S DAUGHTER, GRETEL & HANSEL, the upcoming LONGLEGS) has written and will direct THE MONKEY, based on Stephen King’s story that appeared in his SKELETON CREW collection (and inspired the cover image on many editions of that book). The movie is being produced by James Wan and Michael Clear of Atomic Monster, and C2 Motion Picture Group’s Jason Cloth and Dave Caplan. Theo James (THE WHITE LOTUS) will star; the synopsis: “When twin brothers Hal and Bill discover their father’s old monkey toy in the attic, a series of gruesome deaths starts occurring all around them. The brothers decide to throw the monkey away and move on with their lives, growing apart over the years. But when the mysterious deaths begin again, the brothers must reunite to find a way to destroy the monkey for good before it takes the lives of everyone close to them.”

“Stephen King is the godfather of the horror genre,” Wan says. “He had a huge influence on me as a child and throughout my career and it’s always been a dream to help bring one of his stories to life. THE MONKEY is a personal favorite, with its simple, iconic, and incredibly marketable conceit. And I can’t imagine anyone better than a visionary and lifelong genre fan like Osgood to bring this to life.”

“We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Osgood, James, Brian and our friends at Black Bear International to present STEPHEN KING’S THE MONKEY,” say Cloth and Caplan. “It perfectly checks the box of what is working in the marketplace right now and will be a hot property. We can’t wait for audiences to see Theo James in this role–he is really going to knock it out the park with an amazing performance.” THE MONKEY joins another King project announced yesterday, THE LIFE OF CHUCK based on the author’s tale from his IF IT BLEEDS anthology, with Mike Flanagan writing and directing and Tom Hiddleston and Mark Hamill set to star.