Netflix is teaming with 21 Laps’ Shawn Levy and Dan Levine to develop a feature length adaptation of horror author Grady Hendrix’s short story The Blanks, Deadline reports today.
The short story was published earlier this year in Amazon Original Stories’ collection, The Shivers.
In The Blanks, “a family returns to their vacation home on Jeckle Island, as they do every summer, settling into familiar routines and abiding by the island’s unspoken rules. But when Rachel’s son discovers a family friend collapsed and confronted by something unspeakable, the illusion of normalcy shatters — setting off a chain of events that will change their lives forever.”
No director or screenwriter has been announced as of yet for the adaptation.
This is the second short story by Hendrix that is being developed for a feature adaptation, following Ankle Snatchers’ announcement for Sony in March.
It speaks to the author’s hot streak lately. Novels We Sold Our Souls and Horrorstör are set to be adapted for New Republic. Final Girl Support Group is also in development at HBO Max with It director Andy Muschietti and Charlize Theron among the producers. The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires was also announced last summer to receive a series adaptation at HBO.
Hendrix is also coming off the recent publication of the horror novel Witchcraft for Wayward Girls. I wrote in my review that the author’s newest novel “offers the author’s take on witches but with a far meatier and more mature story grounding it. Here, witchcraft is rarely as scary as the historically based horrors tormenting a handful of terrified teens shunned by society.”
21 Laps is currently at work on the fifth and final season of Netflix’s Stranger Things, which premieres later this year.
Aperture Entertainment’s Adam Goldworm is also producing, with Hendrix serving as executive producer.
