It might seem easy to crack into the world of horror writing when your dad happens to be Stephen King. But you’ve got to hand it to novelist Joe Hill, who managed to get published on the strength of his work as opposed to who his famous pop is.
Now Hill’s secret is out, but Hollywood has already come calling and Warner Brothers snapped up the rights to his first book, chiller thriller Heart-Shaped Box last year.
The company has waved the project under the nose of no lesser director than Neil Jordan, last seen putting Cillian Murphy in drag for Breakfast On Pluto, and he’s signed on to adapt and direct.
Box follows a crusty old rock star who can’t resist the macabre. When a suit pops up for sale on eBay that apparently includes a ghost, he buys it, with the garment arriving in the titular, Nirvana song-referencing box. But there’s a catch – the ghost wants the musician dead.
The Box will have to fight for space on the director’s schedule, though – Jordan is also attached to write and direct The Killing On Carnival Row for New Line.