Jonathan Levine to direct film based on Grady Hendrix’s novel Horrorstör
This is news we have reported multiple times before: there’s an adaptation of author / Satanic Panic screenwriter Grady Hendrix’s 2013 novel Horrorstör in development. Things are different this time around, though, because there’s a writer/director attached! The Hollywood Reporter has broken the news that Jonathan Levine – whose credits include All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, The Wackness, 50/50, Warm Bodies, The Night Before, Snatched, and Long Shot – has signed on to write and direct the film adaptation of Horrorstör for Searchlight Pictures.
Background
Published in 2014, Hendrix’s novel is set at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, Ohio. One morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerring bookshelves, shattered Glans water goblets, and smashed Liripip wardrobes. Sales are down, security cameras reveal nothing, and store managers are panicking. To unravel the mystery, three employees volunteer to work a nine-hour dusk-till-dawn shift with plans to patrol the empty showroom floor, investigate strange sights and sounds, and encounter horrors that defy the imagination.
When we previously reported on an adaptation in 2014 and 2015, Horrorstör was going to become a television series written by Josh Schwartz and Michael Vukadinovich, with Charlie Kaufman on board as an executive producer. The show was set up at Fox, then moved to AMC, but never made it into production.
In 2020, New Republic Pictures acquired the rights to turn the story into a feature film, and they had Hendrix writing the screenplay himself. And that was the last we heard of it… until Levine signed on.
Producers
Brian Oliver of New Republic will be producing Horrorstör alongside Gillian Bohrer of Megamix, Adam Goldworm of Aperture Entertainment, and Brad Fischer. VP of production Richard Ruiz and production executive Apolline Berty are overseeing the project for Searchlight Pictures, reporting to heads of production and development DanTram Nguyen and Katie Goodson-Thomas.
Levine
In addition to the films mentioned above, Levine has also directed episodes of How to Make It in America, Rush, I’m Dying Up Here, Tell Me Lies, and Nine Perfect Strangers. He was also recently attached to direct a forty-years-later sequel to Dirty Dancing, but now it looks like that project will be moving forward with him only serving as an executive producer.
Hendrix
Grady Hendrix is said to be the second-best-selling horror writer in the world, behind Stephen King. His works include Satan Loves You, Horrorstör, My Best Friend’s Exorcism, Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of ‘70s and ‘80s Horror Fiction, We Sold Our Souls, The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, The Final Girl Support Group, These Fists Break Bricks: How Kung Fu Movies Swept America and Changed the World, How to Sell a Haunted House, and Witchcraft for Wayward Girls.
A while back, he contributed the 29 page short story Ankle Snatcher to the Amazon Original Stories Creature Feature collection, which also featured stories by Joe Hill, Josh Malerman, Paul Tremblay, Jason Mott, and Chandler Baker. The story quickly secured a film adaptation deal with Sony. When Amazon put together an original stories collection called The Shivers, Hendrix contributed the 35 page story The Blanks, which can be read in The Shivers Collection alongside stories by the likes of Stephen Graham Jones, Catriona Ward, Owen King, and, again, Joe Hill. The Blanks also secured a film adaptation deal, this one with 21 Laps, Aperture Entertainment, and the Netflix streaming service.
Horrorstör producer Adam Goldworm has a film adaptation of Hendrix’s comedy novella Badasstronauts in the works at Paramount Pictures, and I think it should star Bruce Campbell.
My Best Friend’s Exorcism was turned into a feature film that was released through Prime Video, and Horrorstör adaptations have been in the works for years. At first it was intended to be a TV series, now producers are aiming to turn it into a movie. A film adaptation of How to Sell a Haunted House is set up at Legendary Entertainment, and TV series adaptations of both The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires and The Final Girl Support Group were in the works, but appear to have stalled out.
Hendrix also co-wrote the films Mohawk and Satanic Panic, as well as the documentary Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks. To date, his books have sold more than 2.4 million copies worldwide.
Have you read Horrorstör? What do you think of Jonathan Levine signing on to write and direct the film? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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