Joe Hill

Ever head out on the town and see men with horns on their head? Usually, one would think those little things were the glued-on dealies, sold to those who like their devilish tendencies to be as blatant as possible. But in the minds of Stephen King's offspring, it's a little bit different. Variety reports that Joe Hill, son of the famous King, has had his upcoming novel Horns optioned by Mandalay Pictures.

The novel, which will hit shelves this February, is a love story zeroing in on a 26-year-old man whose wild night of booze ends in an unexpected way -- he blacks out and wakes up in the morning to find horns on this head -- not the paste variety, but honest-to-devil horns. "As the horns grow bigger by the day, the reason why seems to lie in the unsolved murder of his girlfriend." Since he's growing devil horns, I think it's safe to presume that there's some misdeed behind the horns.

This deal is part of a new strategy for Mandalay where they will grab properties, develop them, and then set out to score money or shop them to studios. Whether this will work for Hill's latest remains to be seen. Back in early 2007, Hill's Heart Shaped Box was set to become a feature film helmed by Neil Jordan, and has since faded into the ether. Here's hoping something happens. It would be nice to see how another King fares on the big screen.