Darren Aronofsky may go from The Whale to a dog. He’s also got Black Swan in his catalog, so really, the guy just loves an animal-themed naming convention. Maybe he should have bought a zoo instead of going to Hollywood, but luckily for Netflix, he chose the filmmaking route. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Oscar-nominated director is now in talks to helm the streamer’s Cujo remake, which it just announced last week.
Roy Lee (Barbarian) is on board to produce the film, which does not yet have a writer attached. This won’t be Lee’s first time at the Stephen King rodeo. He already earned his bona fides producing both It movies, Salem’s Lot, Starz’s The Stand, and Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep.
If you were lucky enough not to be traumatized by Cujo‘s original 1983 outing (or King’s foundational 1981 novel, for that matter), the story follows a once good-natured St. Bernard who turns into a monster after he’s bitten by a rabid bat. The original film was directed by Lewis Teague and starred Dee Wallace, Daniel Hugh Kelly, and Danny Pintauro. No actors are attached to the new project as of this writing.
Netflix is likely trying to fast track this to get a jump on the mad dash to score a great King adaptation that Hollywood seems to be running right now. Edgar Wright has been in a marathon not a sprint with his Running Man revamp, originally announced back in 2021. Flanagan has three in the coffers with upco*ing film The Life Of Chuck as well as his Dark Tower series and more recently announced Carrie series. HBO has It prequel Welco*e To Derry waiting in the sewers for its premiere later this year, and Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey just slashed its way past $35 million at the box office. We’ll see if Cujo can beco*e top dog whenever the film fetches a premiere date from Netflix.