No, Stephen King isn’t ready to kill someone because of a half-assed adaptation of one of his books…not yet, anyway. No, his story Throttle, a 60-page novella he co-wrote with his son and upcoming scribe himself, Joe Hill, has been optioned by producer Nick Wechsler.
Throttle is set to be published in 2009 via an anthology entitled He is Legend, a tribute to the great Richard Matheson ( I Am Legend, The Incredible Shrinking Man). Throttle‘s story is about a couple of bad-ass bikers, a father and son, cruising around on the highways and byways of America. This being a King and Hill story, a nut-job truck driver soon shows up to menace the poor bastards. Bedlam and mayhem ensue.
Fitting this story is going to be in an anthology dedicated to Richard Matheson, since Matheson wrote the ultimate story and screenplay about a crazy truck driver, Duel. Additionally, King’s been very vocal in the past on what a huge influence Matheson has had over his own work.
Producer Nick Wechsler used his own $$ to nab the rights, so he’s still working on a development strategy in terms of lining things up with stars and a studio. Furthermore, he has the adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road to oversee, which is due in theaters this fall. Viggo Mortensen and Charlize Theron topline that one.
Meanwhile, Joe Hill’s novel Heart-Shaped Box is moving forward at Warner Bros. under Neil Jordan’s supervision, while his graphic novel Locke & Key is stuck in development hell at Dimension.
And King, well, it goes without saying everything he writes gets optioned, sold, or eventually made into movies of varying quality at some point.