Acclaimed filmmaker Guillermo del Toro is always keeping busy working on one project to the next, though there's a certain Stephen King story he'd like to work into his creative endeavors. As someone with plenty of appreciation for and experience in the horror genre, it's only natural for one of King's stories to pique del Toro's interest. As he explained recently on The Kingcast podcast, the filmmaker now feels drawn to Pet Sematary, finding himself especially haunted by its story after becoming a father.

“You know the novel that I would have killed to adapt, and I know there's two versions of it, and I still think maybe in a deranged universe I get to do it again one day is Pet Sematary. Because it not only has the very best final couple of lines, but it scared me when I was a young man. As a father, I now understand it better than I ever would have, and it scares me. A hundred times more.”

That certainly makes sense. Pet Sematary follows Louis Creed, a doctor who moves his family to a new home in rural Maine to start a new life. Sadly, his young son Gage is killed in an automobile accident, and the grieving father is unable to move on. He buries the boy in a local cemetery haunted by supernatural forces which bring Gage back to life, but he's no longer the sweet and innocent child he used to be, but something else entirely.

Guillermo del Toro also acknowledges that his chances of adapting Pet Sematary seem slim, as there have already been multiple adaptations made. Mary Lambert directed the original Pet Sematary which was released in 1989, and that movie is considered a horror genre classic and one of the greatest Stephen King-based movies. After Lambert helmed a sequel that wasn't quite as well-received, the franchise was rebooted more recently with a new movie in 2019 from directors Dennis Widmyer and Kevin Kolsch. It was met with mixed reviews with many fans claiming it couldn't touch the original, though others appreciated the spin on the story and alternate take on the plot.

For now, the plan for Pet Sematary is to further expand the franchise with an upcoming prequel that will go straight to streaming. Set decades before the events of the 2019 movie, the prequel follows Jackson White as a young Jud Crandall with the cast also including Jack Mulhern, Forrest Goodluck, Natalie Alyn Lind, and Isabella Star LaBlanc. More recently, Samantha Mathis and Henry Thomas joined the cast. Lindsey Beer is directing. The untitled Pet Sematary prequel will debut exclusively on Paramount+.

As for Guillermo del Toro, fans will have other horror projects to look forward to from the filmmaker. This includes his upcoming Netflix series Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities, hitting Netflix in 2022. Also in the works at the streamer is a stop-motion animated Pinocchio movie co-directed by del Toro and Mark Gustafson and featuring the voices of Gregory Mann, Ewan McGregor, Ron Perlman, Christoph Waltz, Tilda Swinton, and Cate Blanchett. This news comes from The Kingcast.