Joe Hill, the son of Stephen King had a comic book out last week called Locke & Key. Six days later the film rights have been locked up by Dimension Films, the same company that made dad's Mist movie last year. The comic is about three kids living in a New England mansion that contains many doors that can transport and physically alter the children. There's even a frightening monster behind one of them and I don't think it's Michael Jackson.
Here's what Hill told Comic Book Resources last week about the setting: "There's a door that will turn you into a ghost when you walk through it. There's a closet filled with different robes – an African robe, a Chinese robe, Indian furs – and by throwing on these cloaks you can change your race. Most of all, somewhere in the house, there's a door that must never be opened, the black door. Naturally, there's someone who wants to open it, a creature named Dodge, a kind of Peter Pan gone horribly wrong. Someone who takes the Lost Boys of the world and turns them Columbine." See, I was right: it wasn't Jacko.
The comic is coming out from IDW Publishing, an indie that made a strong name as the home for Steve Niles' 30 Days of Night series of miniseries. Hill's first novel, Heart-Shaped Box, got optioned last year and is being developed as a movie by Warner Bros. The idea for his Locke & Key series is to make three six-issue volumes (the next book is released on March 5.)
"I love what Joe wrote. There are fun elements that horror fans love, and it feels like a franchise where you can feel satisfied with each film, but there is a door left open for the next one," Dimension heavyweight Bob Weinstein is quoted as telling Variety.
