Stephen King novel called 'his best in a decade' to be adapted into series by famous director

A recent Stephen King novel that scored rave reviews from his fans will be brought to life by Bourne director Paul Greengrass.

Fairy Tale, a rare foray into the fantasy genre for the It and The Shining scribe, was published in 2022 and almost immediately launched a fierce bidding war.

Although Universal Pictures landed the film rights, the 600-page tome proved impossible to adapt into a feature, so Uncut Gems and Midsommar studio A24 will reimagine the narrative into a 10-part series.

The novel follows 17-year-old boy Charlie Reade, who inherits keys to a portal to a whole new plagued by forces of evil.

King, who often publishes at least one new book a year including recent hits Holly and The Institute, received rave reviews for the 2022 epic, which has been labelled one of his best books in years.

Horror Geek Life dubbed it his “best novel in the last decade”, adding it’s “an absolute return to form in King’s character development.”

“For me, this probably ranks somewhere among his top 10 books,” they added. “Which is pretty incredible, considering he has over 30 books on the New York Times Best-Sellers list and is 75 years old.

“Check this one out soon. You won’t regret it. Long live the King.”

Alison Flood of The Guardian echoed the sentiment, calling it “vintage, timeless King, a transporting, terrifying treat born from multiple lockdowns.”

While Slate called it “the best kind of page-turner”, a book that “will remind you how much fun reading can be.”

They write: “You’ll inhale Fairy Tale in big 100-page swaths without the slightest effort or strain, and you’ll be grateful that there are 600-plus pages of it to remind you several times over how much fun that kind of reading experience is.”

And the New York Times called it a “multiverse-traversing, genre-hopping intertextual mash-up, with plenty of for regular devotees of King, now 77.

“Thankfully, it’s also a solid episodic adventure, a page-turner driven by memorably strange encounters and well-rendered, often thrilling action.”

King’s legion of readers will be on tenterhooks to see how the latest adaptation of his iconic catalogue fares compares to the likes of Carrie, Cujo, The Shawshank Redemption and many more.

Although he’s famed for his daunting doorstoppers, there’s still plenty of time to get through Fairy Tale’s 600 pages before Charlie’s adventures make it to screens.

It’s currently unknown which platform will host the A24 production, but the studio’s previous TV outputs have aired on HBO (Euphoria, The Idol), Paramount+ (The Curse) and Apple TV+ (Sunny).