It was announced earlier this year that Tom Holland (Fright NightChild’s PlayThinner) would write and direct a movie based on Stephen King's short story, The Ten O'Clock People. With filming expected to kick off early next month, I asked Tom Holland about adapting the short story during a recent interview:

Tom Holland: "Stephen and I had dinner when I was making The Langoliers and he had recently finished writing Nightmares and Dreamscapes, which had that short story. He was aggravated at dinner because we were both still smoking at the time. They still had smoking and non-smoking sections, but this particular restaurant had gone totally non-smoking. He was aggravated, and needless to say, I wasn't too thrilled myself.

We were thinking about what kind of people would be exerting this control. It felt like the government trying to control our personal habits. As the internet and digital is growing, the ability of authorities to track you, know what you're doing, and limit your personal behavior is growing. It seemed to me that the themes that were in The Ten O'Clock People went further than just having a cigarette. I thought it was an interesting platform to make a metaphor of what could happen if things went wrong.

What I've done is added a drug element. It's about people who have taken a stop smoking drug and went back to smoking. Then they start seeing things that they shouldn't be seeing."

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From talking to Tom Holland, it seems like this adaptation will be in a similar vein to They Live and I'm interested in seeing how this turns out. As far as casting goes, Rachel Nichols (Conan remake) is currently the only confirmed cast member. However, it has been reported that Justin Long is in negotiations for the lead role and we should have confirmation on that very soon.

Tom Holland has quite a bit going on, including a horror-themed cruise taking place next October. To read our interview discussing his latest venture, visit our recent coverage at: http://dailydead.com/exclusive-tom-holland-talks-ship-of-fear/