Ryan Kiera Armstrong researched Drew Barrymore before filming Firestarter
From “Carrie” to “The Stand” and beyond, the works of American author Stephen King have been adapted by several generations. King’s latest project to get an adaptation is “Firestarter,” based on his 1980 sci-fi thriller of the same name. The story concerns Charlie McGee, a young girl who is inadvertently gifted with pyrokinesis powers as a result of government-controlled experiments on her parents. Following the murder of his mother, Charlie and his father Andy flee from the agency responsible, known as The Shop. The plot should sound vaguely familiar to fans of “Stranger Things,” who drew inspiration from King’s novel to shape the role of telekinetic, waffle-loving character Eleven. “Firestarter” got a feature film adaptation just four years after the novel’s release, and while the writer likened director Mark L. Lester’s approach to the source material to “a cafeteria mashed potato “, King has since returned to praise the performance of the original. direct Drew Barrymore.
On the eve of a new Blumhouse and Universal-backed version of the 1980 novel, which hits theaters and on Peacock this Friday, Barrymore (no stranger to King’s adaptations) inspires the young frontman of 2022’s ‘Firestarter’ Directed by Keith Thomas (“The Vigil”), the new film stars Zac Efron as Charlie’s telekinetic father, Andy, and Sydney Lemmon (“Succession”) as his late mother, Vicky, while that the little firefly herself is played by Ryan Kiera Armstrong. Like his predecessor, Armstrong has already waded through troubled supernatural Stephen King waters, having crossed paths with the dancing (and child-eating) clown Pennywise in “It Chapter 2.” That’s not to say she didn’t have any concerns; in a new interview, Armstrong revealed that she peeked into the 1984 adaptation in her preparation for the role.
let it burn
It’s not that twelve-year-old Keira Ryan Armstrong is afraid to dabble in darker roles as an actress. His pained fiddler Alma devours animals and kills nosy cops in the “Double Feature” season of FX’s “American Horror Story” series last year. But Armstrong, like any youngster, has a strained relationship with the horror genre. She tells ComicBook.com:
“I’ve seen it before, I’ve actually watched 99.999% of it, through little clips, because it’s great to have that inspiration, but I haven’t watched it all because, oh, my God, I’m so bad at horror movies, I can’t watch them. And it’s funny, I can’t watch them but I love making horror movies, which is just ironic. But, of course , I also want it to be distinct and also different and also a renewed take on ‘Firestarter’, and to be unique and to be its own. And Keith has done an amazing job of doing that as well.”
Judging by the early film clips of Charlie kicking tires and starting fires, it seems the officers at the shop are the ones who should be scared. Watch Charlie burn it all down — to the catchy, heart-pounding tunes of John Carpenter — as “Firestarter” hits theaters and on Peacock on May 13, 2022.