Is there a Joe Hill story that isn't optioned right now? I think even the ones unfinished on his laptop are optioned. Combine his name with that of his famous father, Stephen King, and it probably doesn't even have to have more than an opening sentence.

According to Variety, Throttle, the novella Hill co-authored with King, has been optioned by Nick Wechsler. It won't be published until 2009, in an anthology titled He Is Legend that will be dedicated to Richard Matheson. The story follows a father and son, members of a motorcycle gang, who are being chased by an 18-wheeler tanker truck.

Neil Jordan (who looks exactly like Terry Gilliam, no?) is set to adapt Joe Hill's novel Heart Shaped Box for the big screen. Jordan will direct as well, with Oscar-winning screenwriter Akiva Goldsman producing. Joe Hill is the son of horror master Stephen King, and it looks like the genes paid off; Hill's book has been very well received. Heart Shaped Box has nothing to do with Kurt Cobain, but it is about an aging rock star who loves spooky artifacts. He spots an ad on eBay for a suit that contains a ghost. The suit arrives, and - dun dun dah! - the ghost wants him dead. The book was released in February and was Hill's first novel, after an acclaimed run writing short stories.

I like Neil Jordan as a filmmaker, but the guy has fared very poorly when it comes to movies about ghosts. I don't know if you ever saw his High Spirits with Peter O'Toole and Steve Guttenberg, but - woof! The guy's got a spotty track record, but when he's on he makes some excellent films. Hopefully this new thriller is more The Crying Game than In Dreams. Jordan's next feature is The Brave One, another thriller, starring Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard. He's also got A Killing on Carnival Row in his future, which we recently told you about. That one sounds interesting! Did any of you read this Heart Shaped Box? Is it worth checking out?

I went to college with Stephen King's kid. I didn't know him at all, but everyone on campus adored the fact that his parents had named him Joe. Joe King. Get it? Oh, the clever. It's sort of a cruel joke, but also an awesome bit of human-borne wit from a man who will always be associated with horror. I was disappointed, then, to read in Variety this morning that Joe is calling himself "Joe Hill" (that's a picture of the real one up there) these days. I mean, it's good because he's getting gigs on his own merit, but all the pleasure that was once availble in his name is now gone. Sad.

Anyway, the reason Variety was writing about King Hill this morning is that the film rights to Heart Shaped Box, his not-yet-published first novel (it's due out some time next year), have been purchased by Warner Brothers, who will be getting the story to a screenwriter soon. (Just so you know, according to Warner's reps, they had no idea that "Joe Hill" was related to anyone famous when they read and pursued his work. The book just ruled.) In keeping with the desires of its author's blood, the story is a scary-sounding thriller about "a singer obsessed with the occult who buys a ghost on eBay in the form of a man's burial suit, [and is] ... ultimately forced to confront both the ghost and the demons of his own past." Do you think it's the ghost of Kurt Cobain? That'd be a surprising wrinkle.