Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. It must suck being the child of someone super famous, especially when that someone happens to be the best there is at what they do. It's automatically and forever part of your identity. I'm a big fan of Joe Hill's work and even though I'm conscious of looking at his work separately from his father's I find myself still comparing the two.
I want to say it's a positive because Hill's stuff reminds me a lot of vintage Stephen King craziness and fantastic character work, but still. That suggests what's good about Hill is his father's influence.
If you have read Horns or Heart-Shaped Box you know what I mean and also know that Hill has got the goods. Everything he has written so far (from graphic novel Locke & Key to his last book NOS4A2) has proven his talent as a writer.
So, it doesn't surprise me that his work is getting optioned months before release. According to Deadline, his next book The Fireman has been scooped up by Fox and has already landed Louis Leterrier as director.
The book doesn't hit shelves until May 17th (pre-order here), but Amazon has a plot description that sounds pretty cool. It's about a mysterious plague that manifests itself as a series of beautiful black and gold patterns on a person's skin. That's not the bad part. The bad part is that anyone who gets that pattern ends up spontaneously erupting in flames.
As this plague spreads across the US not only are we losing the infected people, but when they go up in flames they take buildings and other people with them. The story focuses on a pregnant nurse who caught the fungus while helping infected who is desperately trying to wait out the infection until after she delivers her (hopefully healthy) baby and the title character, a guy who seems to have been able to harnass the infection as a kind of super power.
Pretty neat, huh?
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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