With Stephen King constantly threatening to retire, it’s been a danger for a few years now that we wouldn’t be getting endless adaptations of his books any longer. However it seems there’s no need to worry, as a new member of the King clan is starting his assault on Hollywood.
Joe Hill, son of Stephen King, has written a couple of books, including the popular Heart-Shaped Box, and now his new novel, Horns, is due out early next year. In an early swoop, Mandalay Entertainment has bought the screen rights to Horns, with plans to turn it into a full-blown Hollywood movie.
Variety desribes the the book as a love story driven by horror and vengeance about a 26-year-old man who wakes up one morning from a blackout hangover and finds horns sprouting out of his head. As the horns grow bigger by the day, the reason why seems to lie in the unsolved murder of his girlfriend.
Heart-Shaped Box was previously optioned by Warner Bros, although despite Neil Jordan being attached as director, there’s still no news on whether the movie version will definitely go ahead.
However it does seem that we can be safe in the knowledge that even if Stephen King does give up writing, at least one of his progeny can take over the reins and ensure we have endless movie adaptations for years to come.
And in case you’re wondering why Joe has the surname Hill, it’s actually a shortened version of his middle name (Hillstrom), so that he’s not always immediately associated with his famous father.