Paramount's 2019 remake of Pet Sematary became a priority after Stephen King made it known he was taking back the rights soon, a new report reveals. One of the most prolific authors in history, King has also seen dozens of movies and TV adaptations of his work emerge. His first novel, Carrie, became a hit film just two years later, and while the amount of King adaptations ebbs and flows, Hollywood never fully gets off the King train. A train that if it were in a King story would probably contain some kind of ancient evil.
Like many authors, King has made deals to grant the screen rights to his work with multiple different studios, with adaptations being made by Warner Bros., Paramount, MGM, and more. That's one reason a real Stephen King-based cinematic universe will probably never be possible. However, it looks like King might be looking to regain control of one of his most famous works.
Released in 1983, Pet Sematary is arguably King's most unsettling novel ever, focusing as it does on a monster no one can truly escape: grief. Sure, there's a supernatural entity influencing the proceedings, but at the end of the day, all the horrific scenes that comprise Pet Sematary are a result of one man not being able to realize that, as the famous quote goes "sometimes dead is better." This past April, Pet Sematary received a remake from Paramount, albeit one that flipped the script on some of the story's most iconic elements. According to a new THR report though, a remake materialized when it did because King let the studio know he would be taking back the rights in two years, thanks to a provision of U.S. copyright law.
This particular feature of U.S. copyright law, added by congress in the 1970s, allows the original author of a creative work to reclaim the rights to that work during a limited period, once the 35-year mark has passed since the original release. Notice of such a move has to be given two years in advance, which King did here, leading Paramount to try and get one more slice out of the Pet Sematary pie before they no longer owned the rights to the property. While Paramount could certainly negotiate a new deal with King afterward, they won't be able to make anything Pet Sematary-related without his permission.
2018 marked 35 years since Pet Sematary's original publication, so King presumably now controls the rights once again, although THR's report doesn't specify that. Even if he did get the rights back last year though, it wouldn't have effected the remake, as projects already in the works before the transfer can still go ahead unobstructed. While a copyright lawsuit involving the rights to Friday the 13th started to make more people aware of this 35-year provision last year, King was actually ahead of the game, already reportedly working on reacquiring the rights to such works as Children of the Corn, Cujo, and The Dead Zone back in 2016.
Source: THR