Stephen King and Joe Hill’s IN THE TALL GRASS is Headed For Netflix
All the way back in 2015, we reported the news that director Vincenzo Natali (Splice, Cube) had signed on to helm an adaptation of Stephen King and Joe Hill's remarkably disturbing novella, In The Tall Grass. At the time, the film was allegedly being prepped for pre-sale at that year's Cannes Film Festival.
This was an exciting development - King and Hill's brutal piece of short fiction, brought to life by a guy who definitely knows a thing or two about disturbing horror! We celebrated this news...and then promptly didn't hear anything else about it again until (checks watch) just now, which just so happens to be three years ago to the day since we first published that report.
Anyway, here's the news on In The Tall Grass, via Deadline:
"Despite its absence from the official film program here at the Cannes Film Festival, Netflix continues to move forward in its feature slate building. A deal has closed for In The Tall Grass, a novella written by Stephen King and his son and fellow bestselling horror author Joe Hill. Westworld‘s James Marsden is in negotiations to star, and Vincenzo Natali is adapting to direct."
For those of you who remain unfamiliar with this one, here's a logline:
"After hearing a young boy’s cry for help, a sister and brother venture into a vast field of grass in Kansas but soon discover that there may be no way out."
Not a word of that logline is inaccurate, but hoo boy, are they leaving a lot out; In The Tall Grass takes some wild twists and turns on its way to an absolutely shattering, pitch-black conclusion. It's very exciting to know that Natali is still making this film, but doubly so given that he'll be making it for Netflix: the streaming giant's largely hands-off approach to filmmaking will almost certainly leave that brutal finale intact, and that's certainly what we want out of an In The Tall Grass adaptation.
We can't wait for this one and are dying to learn more. Stay tuned for updates as they become available, and be sure to go read In The Tall Grass before the movie gets here. I can all but guarantee you'll be knocked back on your heels by that novella's commitment to cruelty.
