Peter Rice Revives Stephen King Fantasy Epic ‘Fairy Tale’ At A24; Paul Greengrass Cracking 10-Ep Series With ‘Fringe’ Showrunner J.H. Wyman

EXCLUSIVE: A24 has taken on the Stephen King bestseller Fairy Tale. The dark fantasy will be mounted as a 10-episode series. Paul Greengrass, who wrote a script and expected to direct the feature, is expected to still be in the middle of things. That script will be expanded by Greengrass and J.H. Wyman, who will be the showrunner and whose credits include Fringe, Almost Human and Debris.

Peter Rice will be executive producer alongside Greengrass, Wyman and possibly King. I’ve heard Greengrass will likely be involved as director, but his deal is not yet done. The other deals have closed.

The novel sparked a bidding battle back when it was auctioned in late 2022. Universal Pictures closed the deal, on the strength of the relationship the studio has with Greengrass over the Bourne Identity films, United 93 and News of the World.

This was King’s first real foray into fantasy fare, and the book clocked in at 600+ pages. It was impossible to fold it all into a two hour film. Universal let it go. Rice, who had read and loved the book, put it all back together at A24, with Greengrass remaining in the film, and Wyman joining him.

Published by Scribner, King’s Fairy Tale follows a 17-year-old boy who inherits the keys to a portal and enters a terrifying world where good and evil are at war. The stakes of both worlds are immense. The magic in the tale is King taking his time to frame out the world of the teen Charlie Reade, and a kindness he extends that eventually rewards him with a magic sundial that gains him entry into the portal. That leads to the epic battle of good and evil, but it doesn’t happen until about 100 pages in. As happened with King tales like The Stand, this just works better in longform storytelling.    

After years in various executive suites, Rice has gotten his new career as a producer off the ground with Saturday Night, the Jason Reitman-directed feature about the harrowing 90 minutes that Lorne Michaels, cast and crew spent before that cultural atom splitting moment occurred when they launched Saturday Night Live. He is also working with Danny Boyle and Alex Garland to expand the zombie tale with 28 Years Later.

King is repped by Rand Holston Management and Gang Tyre. Greengrass is CAA and Goodman Genow, and Wyman by CAA, Anonymous Content and Entertainment Law Group.