The rights to DC’s Hill House’s darkly humorous horror comic series Basketful of Heads have been secured by Bluestone Entertainment, which has hired Ana Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night) to direct from her own script and Natasha Lyonne (Poker Face) to star and produce.
Basketful of Heads, a seven-issue series written by New York Times bestselling novelist Joe Hill (The Black Phone) and illustrated by Leomacs, follows June as she learns that each villain she slays leaves a talking head in his wake. June’s twisted Greek chorus gains a new voice with each slaughter, but she also carries an additional eight pounds of physical baggage.
In addition to director of development Shiva Nassab, who brought the concept to the firm, and Greg Lessans and Akiva Goldsman, who are producing for Weed Road, Bluestone will finance the darkly humorous action horror comedy.
Lyonne will produce for Animal Pictures, which will be overseen by Animal’s Creative Executive Max Ferguson and produced by Animal Pictures’ EVP of Film and Television Dannah Shinder. Bluestone Entertainment will be produced by Richard Saperstein, Brooke Saperstein, and Annie Saperstein, with Beau Turpin serving as executive producer.
“I’m thrilled to work with the brilliant auteur Ana Lily Amirpour on such beloved IP and so grateful that Akiva and Bluestone brought it to us at Animal to develop,” Lyonne said in a statement to Deadline. This is going to be amazing!
“I’m really excited to work with the brilliant and wickedly funny Natasha Lyonne to turn this comic into a movie,” Amirpour said. We will create a brand-new kind of antihero who is drawn into an odd adventure that causes her to experience an inner transformation. It will be bizarre, gory, and darkly humorous.
Lyonne recently produced the Independent Spirit Award-winning sibling drama His Three Daughters, which she starred in with Elizabeth Olsen and Carrie Coon under her Animal Pictures. In addition, Lyonne is starring in Animal’s Emmy-nominated comedy Poker Face, which is about to enter its second season.
She will next be seen in 3000 Pictures’ Klara and the Sun and Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Apple’s Loot and Amazon’s The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy are two more recent projects for Animal Pictures.
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, an Iranian vampire Western, was Amirpour’s breakthrough film a little more than ten years ago. Since then, she has directed Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon, which also had its Venice debut, and The Bad Batch, which starred Jason Momoa, Keanu Reeves, Suki Waterhouse, and Jim Carrey and took home the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.
She has also directed television shows such as Legion, Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, and The Night Agent.
Goldsman’s Star Trek: Strange New Worlds television series, which is about to enter its fourth season, is produced by Weed Road Pictures. The studio is also working on a Paramount adaptation of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, which will be directed by Chad Stahelski and starred Michael B. Jordan.
In addition, Goldsman wrote the script for the upcoming Practical Magic sequel from Warner Bros., which stars Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock.
The most recent film that Bluestone produced and co-financed was Nuremberg, directed by James Vanderbilt and starring Russell Crowe, Rami Malek, and Michael Shannon. It is currently being sold in Berlin by WME Independent.
CAA, Untitled Entertainment, and Schreck Rose Dapello represent Lyonne; CAA and Jackoway Austen represent Amirpour; CAA and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller represent Goldsman; and Hotchkiss Daily & Associates and The Choate Agency represent Hill. In the transaction, Hotchkiss Daily & Associates., et al., represented Leomacs.
As Basketful of Heads is brought to life by Natasha Lyonne and Ana Lily Amirpour, prepare yourself for a twisted, darkly funny horror encounter. This adaptation promises to be an exciting blend of gore, wit, and action thanks to Joe Hill’s compelling plot and an outstanding production crew.
Watch this space for casting, release date, and other information. For the most recent information on this fascinating initiative, visit our website!
