Mike Medavoy has optioned the film rights and he will produce alongside Akiva Goldsman the big-screen adaptation of literary horror novel Those Across the River. Paranormal Activity 2's Tod ‘Kip' Williams is attached to scribe and direct the film version of a ‘page-turner' book by Christopher Buehlman, published in September.
A WWI veteran and former university history professor Frank Nichols and his new wife Dora move to Georgia, where Dora has been offered a teaching position to replace Frank's aunt in the high school. He hopes to write a book about his grandfather, an evil plantation owner, but soon realizes that there are some crazy things going on, including residents that are being killed and eaten. In fact, townfolk perform a monthly ritual to coincide with the new moon to keep the evil spirits a way. Once a month, on the full moon, they send two pigs over the river – no one is really sure how this began, although there are a lot of rumors. However, times are hard, and the townfolk decide to stop wasting pigs they could be eating. That's when things begin to go horribly wrong. That's when people begin to die …
Buehlman writes like Flannery O'Connor meets Stephen King and this is a pretty good debut novel overall, which sounds like the story could inspire some good period-set Southern gothic.
Like I said, Tod Williams most recently directed a supernatural horror film Paranormal Activity 2. The question now arose whether Kip is capable of creating the Southern Gothic genre film.
Stay tuned.
Those Across the River, Cover Art
