Attachment: John Hyams to direct psychological horror film

Author David Drayer’s decision to self-publish his 48 page story Attachment (get the Kindle edition HERE) has resulted in a pretty cool success story: Yeardley Smith and Ben Cornwell’s Paperclip Ltd., Nat Mundel’s Voyage Media, and Chris Goldberg’s Winterlight Pictures have teamed up to option the feature film adaptation rights, and the Attachment movie is set to be written and directed by John Hyams.

Drayer’s story has the following synopsis:

Andrew – a psychotherapist who has made a career out of helping people in crisis – is suddenly unable to stop the unraveling of his own life. A reoccurring nightmare is making it impossible for him to sleep and he has gone from a social drinker to a man who regularly blacks out and does things he doesn’t remember doing, a man whose drinking has cost him the woman he loves.

When this woman requests they meet, he hopes it is the first step in their reconciliation. Instead, she returns with a strange, startling message: his intensifying battle with insomnia and alcohol are coming from a supernatural source, the spirit of an angry, restless soul. She didn’t tell him this when she left him because she knew he would have considered such a notion ridiculous. She’s telling him now… because she has proof.

Deadline reports that the Attachment adaptation was generated by Voyage Media, “an incubator of IP for film, television, and podcast markets” that had Drayer’s story on its development platform.

Cornwell had this to say about the project:

We’re excited about all of our development projects at Paperclip, but there’s special reason to be thrilled at how Attachment came together. It’s been the utmost pleasure being in the John Hyams business. Not only is he a master filmmaker, he is a trusted friend and collaborator. It’s also exciting to begin, what we hope to be, a long and fruitful relationship with Chris at Winterlight as well as Nat and the entire Voyage team. Chris has an outstanding track record of finding the highest quality material, so it was no surprise we fell in love with Attachment. We look forward to all stages of the process working with this wonderful group of talented people.”

Goldberg added:

With Voyage Media, Nat has set up an opportunity for those outside of the traditional Hollywood system to break through, and with David’s gripping novella Attachment, we have found a true gem that would have never come to our attention otherwise. We hope to continue a fantastic relationship and make a great movie. John Hyams could not be a better fit for this material and we’re excited to see what he does with it.”

And Mundel gave this statement:

We believe that great stories can come from anywhere, and that everyone deserves a fair shot. People from all over the world share their books, screenplays and ideas with us. When Chris Goldberg of Winterlight discovered Attachment on the Voyage platform, Chris and I knew it could be a great project for Paperclip to ‘get the band back together’ with John Hyams.”

This marks Hyams’ third collaboration with Paperclip; the previous two were the psychological thriller Alone and the drama All Square. Hyams has also directed Universal Soldier: Regeneration, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, and multiple episodes of Z Nation and Black Summer, among other credits. His Kevin Williamson collaboration Sick is currently in post-production, and we’re still waiting to hear if and when the Maniac Cop remake he has been attached to for years is going to be made.