Spielberg's adaptation of The Talisman put on hold

Steven Spielberg may never get his ambitious six hour adaptation of The Talisman off the ground. The series which was due to premiere on the small screen next summer has been put on hold due to budgetary concerns says The Hollywood Reporter after a review of the completed scripts indicated that the project was far more ambitious than previously thought.

The story which concerns a young man trying to save his mother's life while bouncing between our world and the Territories, a parallel world, to obtain a talisman that will help his cause.

Spielberg has spent more years than I have been alive trying to get The Talisman off the ground as he first optioned the rights to the Stephen King/Peter Straub epic novel 25 years ago (actually it was so long ago, no-one is quite sure of the exact date). A movie attempt in the early 90's with Richard LaGravenese having turned in a draft to Spielberg never materialised and nor did a four hour mini series at the start of this century overt at ABC because of... you guessed it... budget concerns. The Talisman was then once again set to become a feature film beginning with production in the year 2004 at Universal Pictures with director Edward Zwick even on board at one stage but once again nothing came of it, until a year later when Spielberg started toying with the idea of a six hour mini series on TNT. This we now know has been delayed again. If I were Spielberg, I would probably give up the ghost on this one. As cool a book as The Talisman is, if you haven't worked out a way of filming it on the right kind of budget after 25 years, then maybe it's someone telling you to give it up. Either give up the rights and let someone else handle it or left the project rot somewhere, don't waste any more time and effort on it, I say. source - shock till you drop