Final Girl Support Group movie lands at Paramount with Christopher Landon
Paramount is developing Grady Hendrix’s horror novel as a feature, with Christopher Landon set to write and direct, Deadline reports.
By Bianca Rossi · Entertainment Editor
3 min read
The Final Girl Support Group movie is in development at Paramount Pictures, with Christopher Landon attached to adapt and direct Grady Hendrix’s horror novel, Deadline reported.
Landon is a familiar name for studio horror fans. His credits include Freaky, Heart Eyes, the Happy Death Day films and multiple entries in the Paranormal Activity franchise.
The deal puts Landon back in business with Hendrix after Landon produced the author’s My Best Friend’s Exorcism for Amazon Studios, according to Deadline.
What is the Final Girl Support Group movie about?
Hendrix’s novel follows six women in Los Angeles who survived mass-killer attacks and now meet in a therapy group. In the book, their ordeals inspired the kind of slasher franchises that filled 1980s and 1990s horror screens, leaving the survivors with a strange form of fame.
The term “final girl” is horror shorthand for the woman who survives to the end of a slasher story. Hendrix’s book turns that familiar genre idea into the engine for a story about survivors living after the credits would normally roll.
The Final Girl Support Group, published by Random House/Berkley, was a New York Times bestseller and won the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Horror Novel of 2021, Deadline reported. Hendrix will be an executive producer on the film.
Who is producing the Paramount adaptation?
Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti, the filmmakers behind It, remain attached as producers through their Double Dream banner, according to Deadline. Adam Goldworm’s Aperture Entertainment, which represents Hendrix, is also producing.
The project had earlier been set up at HBO Max as a series, with the Muschiettis producing alongside Charlize Theron through Denver and Delilah Films. Deadline reported that Theron is no longer attached to the version now at Paramount.
Paramount is also developing Hendrix’s novella BadAsstronauts. Todd Garner and Goldworm are attached to produce that project, with Hendrix executive producing, Deadline reported.
Christopher Landon’s horror track record
Landon most recently directed Blumhouse’s thriller Drop, starring Meghann Fahy and Brandon Sklenar, for Universal Pictures. Paramount previously brought him into the Paranormal Activity series, where he wrote and produced Paranormal Activity 2, 3 and 4, then wrote and directed the spinoff Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones.
He also directed Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse for Paramount, co-wrote and directed Freaky for Universal, and directed Netflix’s We Have a Ghost, starring David Harbour, Anthony Mackie and Jennifer Coolidge. Deadline reported Landon is represented by WME, Mosaic and Goodman Genow Schenkman Smelkinson & Christopher.
Goldworm and Aperture have several horror projects in the works, including Alpha at Netflix UK with Taron Egerton, The Blanks at Netflix, Ankle Snatcher at Sony with Ben Leonberg directing and Escape Artists producing, and Horrorstör at Searchlight with Jonathan Levine directing, according to Deadline.
Hendrix’s books have sold more than 2 million copies worldwide, Deadline reported. His bibliography includes Horrorstör, We Sold Our Souls, How to Sell a Haunted House, Ankle Snatcher, The Blanks, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls and the nonfiction books Paperbacks from Hell and These Fists Break Bricks: How Kung Fu Movies Swept America and Changed the World.
This story draws on original reporting from Deadline.