Donald Sutherland and Jaeden Martell are set to star in “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone,” a film for Netflix that’s based on a Stephen King short story.
Ryan Murphy and Blumhouse are producing the previously announced film for Netflix, and John Lee Hancock (“The Little Things,” “The Highwaymen”) is directing and writing the screenplay.
“Mr. Harrigan’s Phone” comes from Stephen King’s latest collection of novellas called “If It Bleeds.” It tells the story about a young boy named Craig (Martell) living in a small town who befriends an older, reclusive billionaire Mr. Harrigan (Sutherland). The two form a bond over books and an iPhone, but when the man passes away, the boy discovers that not everything dead is gone, and he finds himself able to communicate with his friend from the grave through the iPhone that was buried with him.
Production is expected to begin in October, and Netflix plans to release the film globally in 2022.
“Mr. Harrigan’s Phone” is produced by Jason Blum, Ryan Murphy and Carla Hacken. The executive producers are Blumhouse Television’s Chris McCumber and Jeremy Gold along with Scott Greenberg.
Donald Sutherland at 86 most recently starred in “The Undoing” and will next be seen in Roland Emmerich’s “Moonfall.” He’s also attached to star in James Gray’s next film “Armageddon Time.”
In addition to starring in the recent adaptation of Stephen King’s “It,” Jaeden Martell is also known for “Knives Out,” “St. Vincent,” “Midnight Special” and “Defending Jacob.” And he also recently became attached to star in a new take on “The Lost Boys” for Warner Bros.
The casting news was announced Friday as part of the second annual BlumFest as part of the genre festival Beyond Fest.