Cell heads to TV
Posted: July 14, 2009, 21:26
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"Some cool news just came out during the Q&A following the North American premiere of John Harrison's adaptation of Clive Barker's Book of Blood. According to Harrison he has just signed up to adapt Stephen King's technology spawned zombie story Cell. Following the demise of the Eli Roth adaptation, Harrison was approached to do a TV mini-series version.
And here is what Fangoria has to say about it:
Fango’s Tony Timpone just called up from Montreal’s Fantasia film festival with a hot scoop: John Harrison, whose Clive Barker-based feature BOOK OF BLOOD is premiering at the event, is writing a four-hour miniseries based on Stephen King’s CELL. The 2006 novel sees the population of America transformed into mindless, rampaging killers by a signal sent through their cell phones.
Harrison is scripting CELL for the Weinstein Company, which had originally planned to turn the book into a theatrical feature (with Eli Roth attached at one point to direct), but decided to abandon those plans and will be shopping the project to networks instead. Having served as assistant director/composer on the King-scripted CREEPSHOW and helmed TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE: THE MOVIE (including an adaptation of the author’s “Cat from Hell”), Harrison considers CELL one of King’s best recent books, with opening chapters that will make an incredible first 30 minutes on screen. The filmmaker adds that he doesn’t see this as a zombie story so much as a VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED-esque chiller, and enjoys the fact that the infected populace possesses a hive mentality. While he has been officially contracted to direct, he would certainly like to. BOOK OF BLOOD screens at Fantasia tonight at 7 p.m. (the show is almost sold out as of now); look for exclusive video of Harrison discussing BOOK, CELL and other projects at this site tomorrow!
Thanks to Al Mattice, Larry Fire and Uncle Creepy.
