Cinematical

Seems like everyone wants to take a stab at filming a Stephen King adaptation lately. Although my guess is that the smart money is still on Frank Darabont's The Mist. But that doesn't mean that any other King project is doomed to end up on one of James' lists. Variety reports that Tobe Hooper has been hired to direct the big-screen version of From a Buick 8. This is King's second 'killer car' story, the first being Christine back in 1983. Buick centers on the recollections of the members of Troop D, a police barracks in western Pennsylvania. After *a young boy is is killed, his father becomes obsessed with the origins of a mysterious Buick 8 left in the town one night by a mysterious man in black (is there any other kind?).

But for those of you out there who can't get the ridiculous image of Keith Gordon being chased down the street by a 1958 Plymouth Fury out of your heads, there is no danger of this film going off the rails into camp territory. Hooper tells Variety, "From a Buick 8" will not be "your stock horror film by any means. There's a really cool, layered quality to the story." Hooper is best known for directing the Texas Chainsaw Massacre back in 1974, but this will be a far cry from the blood and gore of leather-face. Actor-writer Johnathon Schaech and Richard Chizmar were in charge of adapting Buick for the screen and the flick will be produced by Chesapeake Films along with long-time King collaborator Mick Garris.

Correction: It is the son who goes looking for his father's murderer, not the other way around.