On Wednesday, Matt Donnelly of Variety exclusively revealed that the movie rights for Grady Hendrix’s acclaimed novel, How to Sell a Haunted House, have been purchased by Legendary Pictures.
According to Donnelly’s report, the film will be produced by Sam Raimi (via his and Rob Tapert’s Ghost House Pictures production company) and directed by James Ashcroft (Coming Home in the Dark). In a Facebook post linking to the Variety article, Hendrix stated that he will be writing the movie’s script, as well.
How to Sell a Haunted House audiobook cover
The publisher’s summary of the novel (which doesn’t really do it justice) states:
When Louise finds out her parents have died, she dreads going home. She doesn’t want to leave her daughter with her ex and fly to Charleston. She doesn’t want to deal with her family home, stuffed to the rafters with the remnants of her father’s academic career and her mother’s lifelong obsession with puppets and dolls. She doesn’t want to learn how to live without the two people who knew and loved her best in the world.
Most of all, she doesn’t want to deal with her brother, Mark, who never left their hometown, gets fired from one job after another, and resents her success. Unfortunately, she’ll need his help to get the house ready for sale because it’ll take more than some new paint on the walls and clearing out a lifetime of memories to get this place on the market.
But some houses don’t want to be sold, and their home has other plans for both of them…
If you read our reviews regularly, then you know how much we loved this book after getting to read an advanced copy last year. What could’ve been simply a serviceable horror story about a demonic puppet ends up being a heartbreaking tale exploring loss, trauma, and family.
Oh, and it’ll absolutely scare the crap out of you.
The question now becomes whether or not the movie can do its source material justice. The film adaptation of Hendrix’s My Best Friend’s Exorcism was fine, but nowhere near as good as the novel — and not in the esoteric way us book readers like to complain about every page-to-screen transformation. Hendrix’s mix of bone-chilling horror, comedy, and poignant character studies is hard to nail down.
Hopefully having him involved with the script will help this adaptation live up to its immense potential.
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