Roth does King

Dimension Films has picked up the rights to Stephen King's new novel, Cell. For those who aren't devoted followers of King, it appears that he's done away with all that character development and slow-build crap, and has instead returned to the hardcore days of yore with his "goriest, most horrific novel in years." Mmm...gore.

While I generally avoid horror like the plague, the summary for this one includes the single, magical word with the power to make me delve into the genre: "zombies." In this new novel, a pulse is sent through all the world's cell phones that wipes everyone's brains "of any humanity, leaving only aggressive and destructive impulses behind." In other words? They're "crazed, murderous zombie[s]." Nice. The folks without cell phones are unchanged, and they're left to battle the rest of zombified humanity. And, if Cell didn't already sound like a great movie in waiting, consider this: King dedicated the novel to the zombie king himself, George A. Romero.

Unfortunately, however, Dimension was unable to sign Romero for the project (I have no idea if they even tried, but they damn well should have). Instead, they've hired gore-meister Eli Roth to take the helm. Roth, who loved King's novel ("I couldn't put it down. It was such a balls-out horror movie with a smart take on the zombie genre."), hopes to also be part of writing the screenplay, but since he's currently busy with Hostel 2, it'll be a while before anything gets under way.