For more than a decade now, Nick Cutter‘s novel The Troop has been one of those horror books readers just can’t stop talking about. If you’ve read it, you want your friends to read it, and if they read it, they want their friends to read it. Like the creepy worms at the heart of its body horror narrative, it just keeps spreading.
It’s no wonder that for several years now, various parties, including no less a horror giant than James Wan, have been trying to get a film adaptation off the ground. Development on The Troop movie has been relatively quiet recently, but while speaking to Bloody Disgusting about his new book The Dorians, Cutter did offer a brief, optimistic update.
“Well, there is [an update], which is to say the wheels keep spinning,” Cutter said. “It is in the hands right now of a company called Lyrical, who is excellent, and they’ve got a script that they like.”
Lyrical Media is the production company behind recent acclaimed films like How to Blow Up a Pipeline and Elevation, and their other developing projects include upcoming films from James Tynion IV and Adam Wingard. Those feel like good hands for The Troop to be in, so what’s holding things up? According to Cutter, it’s all about finding the right partner, something the project recently lost.
“I can’t say the name of it, but a very popular production company, a very well-known and well-regarded and really good production company had it, but then they signed a big deal with a studio,” Cutter explained. “In that case, they had to dissolve their co-partnership because the studio doesn’t want them developing [pre-existing deals]. They want them developing brand new stuff in-house.”
Originally published in 2014, The Troop follows the title group of young scouts as they head to a remote island for a weekend camping trip. Once there, they find a mysterious man with an insatiable hunger, and in trying to help him, they’re plunged into a body horror nightmare that moves like a horrific freight train. The book remains a favorite across social media and made Cutter into one of the most recognizable names in the horror lit landscape to this day.
The biggest movement on The Troop film so far came in 2019, when Wan’s Atomic Monster shingle picked up the rights and launched development on an adaptation. Now, with Atomic Monster’s merger with Blumhouse, it seems they’re no longer attached, but that hasn’t dimmed Cutter’s excitement.
“Talks are ongoing,” Cutter said. “Let me say this: It is not defunct. It is not dead. That has been through so many iterations over the past decade or so. Different people have taken stabs at it. I remain hopeful that at some point it will see the light of day.”
If Nick Cutter’s hopeful, we’re hopeful. Bring on The Troop movie!
Nick Cutter’s latest novel, The Dorians, is on sale May 19.
