So. Do you want to hear the good news, or the bad news?
The good news is, having acquired the option before the book was even published, Mandalay Pictures are pushing ahead on their big-screen adaptation of Joe Hill's Horns.
Or --- wait... was that the bad news?
Well, my mistake. The other bad news is the so-called close involvement of Shia LaBeouf.
Yeah, you heard me right. Li'l Indy and erstwhile Transformers liaison Shia LaBeouf is attached to play the lead role, which is to say bereaved boyfriend Ig Perrish. Ig remains the sole suspect in the case of the brutal rape and murder of Merrin, the love of his life, and a year to the day, our man in Maine wakes up from a night of soul-searching with a brutal hangover... and a stubby pair of horns sprouting from his head.
The horns aren't just accessories, however. Ig soon realises that these inexplicable growths have given him the power of truth-telling, for in their presence, no-one Ig speaks to can lie. A particularly convenient power, he understands - that is just as soon as the hair of the dog's worn off - particularly particularly convenient considering Merrin's killer is still out there somewhere.
Thus, this devil goes to town.
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I adored Horns. Here's the TSS review to that effect. In fact I was thinking about it just the other day, because it's been just long enough since Horns hit that I'm starting to wonder when we'll hear word one about Hill's next novel.
Alas, we'll all have to wait a little longer to hear good Joe Hill news. Instead, there's this, and you must understand I wasn't immediately down on these developments, not the moment I got wind of 'em. But Shia Labeouf, when Joseph Gordon Levitt seems a far more suitable (not to mention talented) choice. And moreover, Mandalay Pictures.
Look them up on IMDB yourself. This is the production company who gave us not Wild Things, which had at least two redemptive qualities, but Wild Things 2, which had none - confusing, as I recall, redemptive qualities for breasts. Which I most certainly did not just now. Mandalay must have agreed, because as if to make up for such an embarassing oversight, the house then pumped out Wild Things: Diamonds in the Rough and Wild Things: Foursome in quick succession, making up for the first sequel's qualitative shortfall with sheer, unadulterated quantity.
Then again they were also responsible for The Jacket, an ambitious genre flick which should have been far, far better, by all accounts, but settled in the end for status as Not Terrible. So there's hope.
Or hope of some tiny glimmer of hope somewhere, I should say. If you squint for it hard enough.
Anyone out there prepared to be positive about this news?