New Republic Pictures Acquires Grady Hendrix’s Novel ‘Horrorstör’

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar-winning 1917 co-financier and producer New Republic Pictures has optioned New York Times best-selling author Grady Hendrix’s novel Horrorstör, which they will develop into a feature we have learned.

Hendrix’s debut novel, Horrorstör, was released by Quirk Books in 2013 and published in over a dozen languages across the world.

Formerly set up as a television series with Charlie Kaufman, Gail Berman and Josh Schwartz producing at Fox and then at AMC, Horrorstör is now going the feature route with Hendrix adapting his own material for the first time.

The book is set at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, Ohio where morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerring bookshelves, shattered Glans water goblets, and smashed Liripip wardrobes. Sales are down, security cameras reveal nothing, and store managers are panicking. To unravel the mystery, three employees volunteer to work a nine-hour dusk-till-dawn shift with plans to patrol the empty showroom floor, investigate strange sights and sounds, and encounter horrors that defy the imagination.

Hendrix tells us, “I wrote Horrorstör to be simultaneously funny and scary, while paying tribute to the retail warriors who staff our big box stores. Having the opportunity to adapt my novel into a movie is a dream come true. I couldn’t be more excited about taking an audience and trapping them overnight with me in the flatpack hell that is Orsk — the ultimate haunted house, full of Infinite aisles, murderous ghosts, and incomprehensible faux-Scandinavian names.”

“Horrorstör is such a fun and inventive blend of satire with a contemporary haunted house story that is so uniquely Grady Hendrix,” says Brett Cohen, President and Publisher of Quirk Books. “And Quirk is thrilled to partner with New Republic and Aperture Entertainment as Hendrix reimagines and further explores this story for a whole new audience.”

Brad Fischer and Brian Oliver of New Republic and Adam Goldworm of Aperture Entertainment are producing, with Brett Cohen of Quirk Books and Hendrix set to serve as EPs.

Hendrix’s latest novel,The Southern Book Clubs Guide to Slaying Vampires, was an instant New York Times best seller, and sold to Amazon in a ten buyer bidding war months prior to publication, with Hendrix and Quirk set to executive produce. Hendrix’s novel My Best Friend’s Exorcism is set up at Endeavor Content with The Gotham Group, with Quirk and Chris Landon producing and Killing Eve‘s Damon Thomas set to direct.

Aperture’s feature credits include My Friend Dahmer, Showtime’s anthology series Masters of Horror, Lionsgate’s The Last Witch Hunter with Goldworm currently producing such studio films as science fiction thriller The Oberlin Incident at Paramount and the Vince McMahon biopic Pandemonium with John Requa and Glenn Ficarra directing at Tristar as well as Executive Producing the World War 2 B-52 bomber thriller Blessed Event also at Paramount. Goldworm Is in post on the Michael Caine / Aubrey Plaza indie Best Sellers.

Grady is repped by Aperture Entertainment, JABberwocky and Gang Tyre. The Gotham Group reps Quirk Books.