CinemaBlend Copy to clipboard Thirty-nine years. Thatâs the amount of time that Hollywood icon Steven Spielberg has been working on producing an adaptation of Stephen King and Peter Straubâs 1984 novel The Talisman. The filmmaker recognized the incredible potential for the book two full years before it was published â which was when he bought the screen rights â but he has spent the decades since then trying to figure out how to make it into a movie. Multiple directors have come and gone, such as Josh Boone in 2017 and Mike Barker in 2019, but the project has never managed to keep its gears turning long enough to get into production.