It was recently announced that Tom Holland (Fright Night, Child's Play, Thinner) will adapt and direct Stephen King’s short story The Ten O’clock People. Filming is scheduled to start later this summer and we have a couple of casting updates. Justin Long, who was previously in negotiations for the lead role, is now officially on board.
According to THR, Rachel Nichols (Conan remake, pictured below) is in negotiations to join Long in the film. The story revolves around Justin Long's character who gains the ability to see that certain humans are actually monsters. Rachel Nichols will play another character who has the same ability.
We expect a number of casting announcements over the next few weeks. Until then, here is the original press release that announced the project:
“Veteran Director Tom Holland (“Fright Night,” “Child’s Play”) has signed on to adapt and direct the feature film “The Ten O’clock People,” a short story by Stephen King. Holland and King have previously collaborated on the popular thrillers “The Langoliers” and“Thinner.” After an extended hiatus, Holland returned to directing in 2007 as a featured director in the acclaimed “Masters of Horror” series for Showtime.Currently he is writing and directing “Twisted Tales,” a series of shorts for FearNet. “The Ten O’clock People” will be his highly anticipated and first theatrical release since“Thinner.”
King’s “The Ten O’clock People” was a short story published in 1993 as part of his “Nightmares and Dreamscapes” collection and was notable for being set in Boston, Massachusetts as opposed to his familiar Maine locale. The story follows Brandon Pearson, who in trying to kick his smoking habit uncovers a frightening aspect of reality, he plans to extinguish through extreme measures.
Inspired by his own struggle with kicking the habit, “ [this story] was Stephen trying to deal with his cigarette jones and the fairly new no-smoking laws back in the 90’s. This film will be a modernization of the original short story, a paranoid suspense piece,” commented Holland.
“With Ron Howard’s ‘The Dark Tower’ adaptation and remakes of‘Carrie’ and ‘The Stand’ on the horizon, 2013 is shaping up to be the year of King.” Said Producers Nathaniel Kramer and E.J. Meyers, “We’re excited to be contributing to it.”
“The Ten O’clock People” will begin filming this summer and is produced by Making Ten O’clock Productions and Holland’s Dead Rabbit Films.”