The latest in a long line of Stephen King stories to hit the big screen, Autopsy Room Four is getting its turn at bat next. Deadline reports that the macabre tale is being adapted as a feature film by writer-director Ranjeet S. Marwa, alongside agent-turned-producer Jon Levin, with Marwa in charge of both the script and directing duties.
Originally published in the limited edition Six Stories in 1997, before being collected in both Robert Bloch’s Psychos and Everything’s Eventual, Autopsy Room Four centers on a man who wakes up in the titular autopsy room, dealing with the aftermath of a life-threatening accident as he realizes he’s been trapped with the cold and the dead. The story delves into the stranger’s psyche as he struggles to survive, confronting his own mortality within the four walls of what may become his own grave.
This isn’t the first time the short story’s been adapted for the big screen. It was first tackled as a short film in 2003, before appearing as part of TNT’s Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King in 2006. It’s one of many King stories getting ready to hit our screens soon, including the much-lauded The Life of Chuck starring Tom Hiddleston, premiering on May 30, 2025, as well as The Monkey, with Longlegs director Osgood Perkins tackling the short story of the same name, and the IT prequel series, Welcome to Derry, on Max.
This isn’t Levin’s first go-round with a King story either. He executive produced Netflix’s In the Tall Grass, based on the novel of the same name by the author and his son Joe King, which premiered on the streamer in 2019. The film will be Marwa’s first time working with the legendary author’s work, but his backlog of horror shorts, as well as films like Dig Me No Grave and The Hat Man, puts him in the perfect position to put a new spin on a work unfamiliar to most.
No release window for Autopsy Room Four has been announced.
