In a competitive bidding war against other studios and production companies, Deadline reports former ABC Studios president Patrick Moran’s PKM Productions has successfully won the rights to author Grady Hendrix’s novel titled The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires. PKM is planning to adapt the upcoming supernatural horror novel into a series as part of Moran’s overall deal with Amazon Studios.
“Southern Book Club is a spiritual sequel to My Best Friend’s Exorcism,” Hendrix said in a statement. “None of the same characters recur, but it takes place in the same neighborhood where I grew up, only a few years later and this time, instead of being about the kids, it’s about their parents. “It’s a power ballad ode to the moms I grew up around, who seemed like wine-drinking, book-reading powderpuffs but who dealt with the kind of darkness on a regular basis that would make Jack Reacher cry.”
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The novel is a character-driven supernatural thriller that will be set in 1990s suburban Charleston. It is being described as a Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias meet Dracula kind of story that will center on Southern housewife named Patricia Campbell and her women’s book club as they team up to protect their community from a mysterious and handsome stranger who turns out to be a real monster.
Its official synopsis reads: “Patricia Campbell’s life has never felt smaller. Her ambitious husband is too busy to kiss her good-bye in the morning, her kids are wrapped up in their own lives, and she’s always a step behind on thank-you notes and endless chores. The one thing she has to look forward to is her book club, a close-knit group of Charleston women united by their love of true crime and suspenseful fiction.
This predictable pattern is upended when Patricia is viciously attacked by an elderly neighbor, bringing the neighbor’s handsome relative, James Harris, into her life. Sensitive and well-read, James makes Patricia feel things she hasn’t felt in twenty years. But there’s something…off…and then Patricia’s senile mother-in-law insists she knew him back when she was a girl.
When local children go missing, Patricia has reason to believe that James may be more Bundy than Beatnik. But once she and the book club members investigate further, the true monster emerges—and he’s far more terrifying than any serial killer they’ve ever read about.”
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The series adaptation will be executive produced by Hendrix and Quirk Book’s Brett Cohen. The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires is scheduled to launch this coming April 7 and you can pre-order the book now by clicking here.
Hendrix is best known for writing many horror novels such as Horrorstor, My Best Friend’s Exorcism, We Sold Our Souls and Paperback from Hell: The Twister History of ’70s and ’80s Horror Fiction. The latter had earned him a Bram Stoker Award for Best Non-Fiction in 2018. He also wrote the screenplay for last year’s comedy horror film Satanic Panic which starred Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O’Connell.
