Imagine waking up one day with a pair of curved horns sticking out of your forehead. That is the predicament that Ig Perrish, the protagonist of Joe Hill's wonderfully contemplative horror novel "Horns," and if there's one filmmaker we would love to see that image brought to the screen, it's Alexandre Aja, the French filmmaker behind "High Tension," the stylish "Hills Have Eyes" remake, and last summer's giddy-gory fun "Piranha 3D." Thankfully, according to the Hollywood Reporter, this will be the case.
The project, from Mandalay Pictures, was at one point set to be headlined by Shia LaBeouf, but that doesn't seem to be happening anymore, probably because the "Horns" script features no transforming robots. The screenplay was written by Keith Bunin, who has written a bunch of episodes of "In Treatment" and is working on Michel Gondry's probably-never-going-to-happen fantasy "The Return of the Ice Kids." If we had to put money on it, we'd say that now that he's attached, Aja and his writing/producing partner Gregory Levasseur, will do a polish on the script, altering it to fit their sensibilities. (The two just wrote the "Maniac" remake that Elijah Wood is being scary in now.)
The original novel has some truly striking images, including a moment where Ig, his horns quite large now, gives a sermon to a rapt audience…of snakes. It's a cool-ass book full of wonderful characters and vivid flashbacks that really gets under your skin (for some reason the horns make people confess their deepest, darkest secrets – awkward). We think Aja is an inspired choice to adapt the material. He's one of the few bright shining lights in the modern horror genre and we are very confident he'll do the story justice.
Interestingly enough, Aja is also attached to a "Pet Semetary" remake. "Pet Semetary" was written by Stephen King who just so happens to be… Joe Hill's father!
According to the Hollywood Reporter, this should be coming together quite soon, with Aja shooting in spring or summer 2012 so that Aja can complete filming before he tackles "Cobra," his sci-fi pirate manga thingee with the ridicuous promo art. With Aja at the helm, "Horns" is going to be a hell of a good time.
Aja is awesome, but all he does is remakes now. Piranha and Mirrors weren't good at all.