Grady Hendrix‘s 2021 New York Times Bestseller The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires is officially in the works over at HBO, a departure from its previously planned home at Amazon.
Deadline, who reported the news exclusively yesterday, also report that Hendrix is writing alongside The Righteous Gemstones duo Danny McBride and Edi Patterson.
Described as “Steel Magnolias meets Dracula”, The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires’ plot synopsis reads as follows:
Housewife Patricia Campbell’s life has never felt smaller. 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 paperback fiction. At these meetings, they’re as likely to talk about the Manson family murders as they are to discuss marriage, motherhood, and neighborhood gossip. This predictable pattern is upended when Patricia meets James Harris, a handsome stranger who moves into the neighborhood to take care of his elderly aunt and ends up joining the book club.
James is sensitive and well-read, and he makes Patricia feel things she hasn’t felt in twenty years. But there’s something off about him. When local children go missing, Patricia and the book club members start to suspect James is more of a Bundy than a Beatnik—but no one outside of the book club believes them. Have they read too many true crime books, or have they invited a monster into their homes?
Deadline remind that the project was previously in development at Amazon with Patrick Moran’s PKM Productions but has now moved to the Warner Bros Discovery premium network without Moran’s involvement.
Hendrix, McBride and Patterson will also executive produce, alongside Brandon James for McBride’s Rough House Pictures. The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires ‘ publisher, Quirk Books, will also have an executive producer credit according to Deadline.
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires marks the latest Hendrix novel to be optioned for the screen (whether small or big), following My Best Friend’s Exorcism, How to Sell A Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group.
Hendrix also wrote the screenplay for 2019’s Satanic Panic.
We’re big fans of Mr Hendrix around these parts, and so will of course bring you more updates on The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires as they roll in!
