The Black Phone author Joe Hill is working on a screenplay based on his own unpublished novella for Sony Screen Gems.
Speaking to Mashable, Hill explained that he’s been quietly writing scripts to maintain his Writers Guild of America healthcare in order to help pay for his wife’s cancer treatment.
“The script I’m working on now is an adaptation of an unpublished novella that I’d written that will be published eventually,” Hill said.
The Black Phone filmmaker Scott Derrickson helped Hill secure the job.
“I sent him this novella I had written that hadn’t been published and a pitch for how I’d adapt it, and he got psyched. And he’s like, ‘We gotta do this.’ And so he got me the gig to write the script. Now I’m revising it for Sony Screen Gems.”
Hill plans to continue writing a new screenplay every year in addition to a new novel each year in his 50s.
“The next two things I’ve got lined up are adaptations of other people’s words,” Hill noted, “which I’m really excited about.”
Meanwhile, Hill revealed to Mashable that an adaptation of his latest novel, King Sorrow, is being developed for TV.
No other details are available at this time, but the horror fantasy epic is described as a chilling tale of modern-world dangers, dark academia, and the unexpected consequences of revenge as six friends summon a dragon that demands human sacrifice.
Here’s the full synopsis for King Sorrow, which was published last month via William Morrow:
“Arthur Oakes is a reader, a dreamer, and a student at Rackham College, Maine, renowned for its frosty winters, exceptional library, and beautiful buildings. But his idyll—and burgeoning romance with Gwen Underfoot—is shattered when a local drug dealer and her partner corner him into one of the worst crimes he can imagine: stealing rare books from the college library.
“Trapped and desperate, Arthur turns to his closest friends for comfort and help. Together they dream up a wild, fantastical scheme to free Arthur from the cruel trap in which he finds himself. Wealthy, irrepressible Colin Wren suggests using the unnerving Crane journal (bound in the skin of its author) to summon a dragon to do their bidding. The others—brave, beautiful Alison Shiner; the battling twins Donna and Donovan McBride; and brainy, bold Gwen—don’t hesitate to join Colin in an effort to smash reality and bring a creature of the impossible into our world.
“But there’s nothing simple about dealing with dragons, and their pact to save Arthur becomes a terrifying bargain in which the six must choose a new sacrifice for King Sorrow every year—or become his next meal.”
Much like his father Stephen King, Hill’s work has been fertile ground for film and TV adaptations, including “Locke & Key,” “NOS4A2,” In the Tall Grass, and Horns.
