Stephen King’s A Good Marriage Gets US Distribution

Being afraid of a stranger is one thing, but even more horrifying is learning that your spouse of over 20 years is not who you thought they were: that hits a lot closer to home. This terrifying scenario is explored in A Good Marriage, a film adaptation of a Stephen King novella of the same name that appeared in 2010's Full Dark, No Stars. With Screen Media Films having just acquired the movie's US rights, a release date is now planned.

Variety reports that Screen Media Films is setting their sights on a nationwide October theatrical release for A Good Marriage, with plans to make the film available on VOD around the same time.

Peter Askin directed off a screenplay by Stephen King. While Askin is known for his documentary work (Trumbo), he recently directed the stage production of Stephen King’s Ghost Brothers of Darkland County. Production took place in Sleepy Hollow, New York.

Joan Allen stars as Darcy Anderson, who “learns more about her husband of over twenty years than she would have liked to know when she stumbles literally upon a box under a worktable in their garage."

Also appearing in the movie is The Cabin in the Woods‘ Kristen Connolly, who is playing the daughter of Joan Allen’s character, while Anthony LaPaglia (Without a Trace) is taking on the role of the husband/father that’s hiding a secret from his family. Theo Stockman (Broadway's American Idiot) rounds out the movie's family cast, playing the son. Stephen Lang (Avatar, Terra Nova) is also in the movie, playing “a retired investigator from the Maine Attorney General’s office” who is obsessed with an unsolved crime. We'll let Daily Dead readers know the movie's exact release date when it's revealed.

Want to know a bit more? Here are Stephen King’s comments about the inspiration for the story: “This story came to my mind after reading an article about Dennis Rader, the infamous BTK (bind, torture, and kill) murderer who took the lives of ten people–mostly women, but two of his victimes were children–over a period of roughly sixteen years. In many cases, he mailed pieces of his victims’ identification to the police. Paula Rader was married to this monster for thirty-four years, and many in the Wichita area, where Rader claimed his victims, refuse to believe that she could live with him and not know what he was doing. I did believe–I do believe–and I wrote this story to explore what might happen in such a case if the wife suddenly found out about her husband’s awful hobby. I also wrote it to explore the idea that it’s impossible to fully know anyone, even those we love the most.”