Grady Hendrix’s Horrorstör—the 2014 horror-comedy-parody that has nothing whatsoever to do with a certain Swedish purveyor of modern furniture—is coming to the big screen! Deadline reports that the novel has been optioned for film by New Republic Pictures, with the author himself adapting.
“I wrote Horrorstör to be simultaneously funny and scary, while paying tribute to the retail warriors who staff our big box stores,” Hendrix told the publication. “Having the opportunity to adapt my novel into a movie is a dream come true. I couldn’t be more excited about taking an audience and trapping them overnight with me in the flatpack hell that is Orsk — the ultimate haunted house, full of Infinite aisles, murderous ghosts, and incomprehensible faux-Scandinavian names.”
According to Deadline, the author will also serve as executive producer alongside Brett Cohen, the president of Horrorstör’s publisher Quirk Books, while the producers include Brad Fischer, Brian Oliver, and Adam Goldworm. There’s no word yet on casting or other production details.
Previously, the novel was optioned for TV. With The O.C. creator Josh Schwartz and Charlie Kaufman on the team, the series would have been an hour-long dramedy on Fox.
Here’s the novel’s official synopsis:
Something strange is happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, Ohio. Every 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. In the dead of the night, they’ll patrol the empty showroom floor, investigate strange sights and sounds, and encounter horrors that defy the imagination.
You can also read an excerpt here.
This isn’t the only Hendrix adaptation in the works. As announced back in February, his new novel The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires is being developed into a series at Amazon, with the author and Cohen on EP duty as well.
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Horrorstör
