Clown in a Cornfield: Smile Producers Adapting Hit Slasher Book

Temple Hill Entertainment, producers of this year’s hit horror movie Smile, are gearing up for another major genre picture. Deadline reports that the company behind The Maze Runner and Twilight franchises, have optioned the rights to horror novel Clown In A Cornfield by Adam Cesare. Independence Day: Resurgence scribe Carter Blanchard is set to pen the script for the film which will have Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil and Little Evil director Eli Craig set to step behind the camera. Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey of Temple Hill will produce, writing in a statement: “We love Eli Craig’s brand of scary fun and are thrilled to be working with him on this terrifying slasher adaptation that is both timely and timeless.”

“Nostalgia driven, elevated horrors that deliver on the promise of the genre – thrilling action, heart-stopping suspense and deeply satisfying endings – continue to dominate at the global box-office,” said Protagonist CEO Dave Bishop, who is handling sales for the film at AFM. “Our friends at Temple Hill are masters of taking this critical formula and creating wholly original stories that surprise, delight and gratify audiences and Eli is the perfect visionary to bring this special project to its full potential.”

The official description for hte YA book reads: “Quinn Maybrook and her father have moved to tiny, boring Kettle Springs, to find a fresh start. But what they don’t know is that ever since the Baypen Corn Syrup Factory shut down, Kettle Springs has cracked in half.  On one side are the adults, who are desperate to make Kettle Springs great again, and on the other are the kids, who want to have fun, make prank videos, and get out of Kettle Springs as quick as they can. Kettle Springs is caught in a battle between old and new, tradition and progress. It’s a fight that looks like it will destroy the town. Until Frendo, the Baypen mascot, a creepy clown in a pork-pie hat, goes homicidal and decides that the only way for Kettle Springs to grow back is to cull the rotten crop of kids who live there now.”

Produced on a reported budget of $17 million, Smile has gone on to gross over $185 million and become one of the biggest hits of the year. Ever since the two IT movies from Warner Bros. also turned the box office around the potential for big-budget scary clowns on screen has been in the air, and it seems like Temple Hill is about to capitalize on that.