Originally published January 14, 2016. Updated April 14, 2018.
Deadline is reporting that 20th Century Fox has acquired the rights to Joe Hill’s upcoming novel The Fireman, with Louis Leterrier (The Transporter, Now You See Me) attached to direct.
According to the site, the book concerns “a worldwide pandemic of spontaneous combustion that will reduce civilization to ashes unless it can be stopped by an improbable group of heroes led by an enigmatic man known as The Fireman. It’s no simple blaze: the condition starts as an inky stripe on a bodypart, looking like a tattoo. It’s a highly contagious deadly spore that eventually causes the sufferer to burst into flames. Millions are infected; among them is a nurse who treated numerous sufferers until they eventually perished, with the hospital burned to the ground. Pregnant, she finds herself infected with the spore. Knowing infected mothers have birthed healthy babies, she too is in a race against time.”
The deal follows the recent news that AMC is adapting Hill’s earlier novel NOS4A2 as a TV series, while the author also has the novel Heart Shaped Box and his comic book series Locke & Key in development as features.
