James Wan – who is already the modern “King of Horror” having directed Saw, Dead Silence, Insidious and The Conjuring, recently announced his Atomic Monster production entity that’s going to become the biggest thing this genre has seen in years.
While he’s already in post with Lights Out, he’s now getting behind an adaptation of Keith Donohue’s The Boy Who Drew Monsters, reports Heat Vision.
New Line has preemptively picked up the movie rights with Ian Goldberg and Richard Naing, who penned Emile Hirsch’s recently wrapped indie horror film The Autopsy of Jane Doe, on board to write the adaptation.
The book, published in 2014 by Picador, “Centers on a 10-year old boy who suffers from Asperger’s as well as agoraphobia. But he also develops the ability to bring to life whatever he draws, which unfortunately happen to be monsters.”
The boy’s best friend, his parents and a priest’s housekeeper figure into the story as they all try to help the boy in a book that is described as part drama, part ghost story and part creature feature.
Wan will produce with Michael Clear, who heads production at Wan’s Atomic Monster and brought the book into the label. Atomic Monster has a first look deal with New Line but that is for low-budget horror projects. This project falls outside of the deal.