Firestarter production kicks off by lighting someone on fire, of course!

If you’re a Stephen King fan, you’ve been living the high life lately with adaptations of everything from It to Doctor Sleep and even (another) Pet Sematary film brewing in the near future. This year, fans have the Apple TV+ adaptation Lisey’s Story to look forward to and a new version of Firestarter, starring Zac Efron.

Production has officially started on the new movie, announced by a fun clip shared by the official Blumhouse Twitter showing something being caught on fire, which seems fitting, doesn’t it?

The new version of Firestarter was announced back in 2017, before stalling for a while. Last year, things finally started moving when casting was announced.

For those unfamiliar with the story, Firestarter was first published in 1980 and centered on Charlie McGee, a young girl with pyrokinetic powers. Over time, Charlie’s powers start growing and evolving. A secret government agency called The Shop tries to take Charlie captive, so she’s forced to go on the run with her dad, Andy, who also has his own abilities.

The original film adaptation starred a young Drew Barrymore as Charlie and David Keith as Andy. The new version will see Efron take on the role of Andy. It seems like Efron is enjoying branching out into darker stories as he recently played Ted Bundy in the Netflix Original film. If the role of Charlie has been cast, it hasn’t been announced yet.

This version will be directed by Keith Thomas and produced by Blumhouse. Thomas previously chatted with SYFY Wire about making this version different from the 1984 film.

"“When I came on board, we dug into the characters more, spending more time with Charlie and Andy and [Andy’s wife] Vicki. How do you parent when you’ve got a little girl who can melt someone’s face off when she gets angry? How do you parent on the run, when there is a company called The Shop after you, that wants to vivisect you, experiment on you?”"

Firestarter does not yet have a release date.