Meet the New ‘Firestarter’ From the Upcoming Reboot
She’s a firestarter. A twisted firestarter.
Yes, above you’ll find the first official photo of the title character in the upcoming remake of Stephen King’s Firestarter. That’s young Ryan Kiera Armstrong — who was born in 2010 and has been acting since 2015 — as the new Charlie.
In the original film based on the Stephen King novel, the role was played by Drew Barrymore. If you want to compare the looks of the two versions of the character, here’s the old trailer for 1984’s Firestarter:
The official synopsis of the updated version:
A young girl develops pyrokinetic abilities and is abducted by a secret government agency that wants to harness her powerful gift as a weapon.
The original Firestarter was directed by Mark L. Lester and also starred David Keith, Freddie Jones, Heather Locklear, Martin Sheen, and George C. Scott. The movie was not a massive success, grossing about $19 million against a $12 million budget and garnering so-so reviews. But Stephen King’s novels have been plundered with increasing frequency for movies in the last few years with Gerald’s Game, In the Tall Grass, Children of the Corn, Pet Sematary, It: Chapter One and Two, and Doctor Sleep all coming since 2017. (And that doesn’t include all the Stephen King TV shows and miniseries in that time.)
The cast of the new Firestarter also includes Zac Efron and Michael Greyeyes; the film is being directed by Keith Thomas for Universal and Blumhouse. Production began in Toronto last week and is expected to continue through the summer. It does not have an official release date as of yet. Here’s something to listen to in the meantime...