William Sleator’s eerie dystopian 1974 YA sci-fi novel House of Stairs is getting an adaptation.
Before I Wake and Doctor Sleep actor Jacob Tremblay will star, Variety reports. Wi Ding Ho (Terrorizers) will direct.
Taking place in the near future, the dystopian genre film “follows five 16-year-old orphans who wake up to find themselves in a strange building with no walls, no ceiling, and no floor: nothing but endless flights of stairs leading in every direction, seemingly infinite. To find an exit, the five teenagers must learn to deal with the others’ disparate personalities, the lack of privacy and comfort, their clear helplessness, and a machine that only feeds them under increasingly ominous situations.”
While House of Stairs is described as an “elevated genre movie,” this setup sounds like an absolute nightmare.
Matthew McInerney-Lacombe pens the screenplay for this adaptation.
“William Sleator’s books have inspired generations of young readers. We are honored to be taking ‘House of Stairs,’ the first adaptation of his work, to the big screen. With Wi Ding Ho’s cinematic vision, and Matthew McInerney-Lacombe’s screenplay, building on the ever-expanding universe of Sleator’s novel, we have a vehicle to thrill and entertain,” said Michael Solomon and Alexis Perrin in a joint statement to the outlet on behalf of Band With Pictures and Rumble Fish. They added, “We also look forward to casting the next generation of talents around Jacob Tremblay.”
Solomon and Perrin, and Benoit Roland for 10.80 Films, will produce. Nick Shumaker, David Levine, and Garrett Kembell will executive produce the project on behalf of Anonymous Content alongside Noëmie Devide, Kim Fox, and Vincent Maraval for The Veterans, and Adrian Love and Jeremy Smith for Elevation Pictures.
Production on House of Stairs is slated to begin later this year in Canada.
Will this adaptation launch a new Orwellian film franchise? Time will tell. In the meantime, we can likely expect to see Tremblay next in The Toxic Avenger.
