The writing duo of Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman received screenplay credit alongside director M. Night Shyamalan on the film Knock at the Cabin, which was an adaptation of the Paul Tremblay book The Cabin at the End of the World. A year ago, it was announced that Desmond and Sherman were writing the script for a horror thriller called Wilderness Reform, which is being produced by Pet Sematary: Bloodlines director Lindsey Anderson Beer and is based on a novel written by Harrison Query and Matt Query. Now, Deadline reports that Wilderness Reform has found its director: Josh Ruben, who previously directed Scare Me, Werewolves Within, and Heart Eyes.
Wilderness Reform is set up at Paramount Pictures. Beer is producing the film through her Lab Brew production company, with the project being part of her first-look deal with Paramount. Scott Glassgold is also producing through his company Ground Control.
The novel by the Querys is said to have “shades of classic Stephen King stories, dealing with themes of loss of innocence.” The story takes place at a wilderness camp for troubled teens and tells of a 13-year-old boy named Ben who is sent there as part of a reform program. Although the counselors are overly happy, a sinister current runs through the place. The boys Ben befriends seem to have unique skills, which is lucky, because the group is going to need all the help it can get in uncovering the mystery behind mysterious events and disappearances, and the evil lurking beneath the camp itself.
The novel (you can get a copy at THIS LINK) has the following description: Thirteen-year-old Ben is sent to a remote reform program for troubled teens by a juvenile court judge. But when he arrives at the camp, located on the edge of the vast wilderness of northwestern Montana, he immediately recognizes that there is something off about the counselors. They’re too friendly and upbeat…yet Ben can tell there’s an undercurrent of menace. As he gets to know the boys in his cabin, he soon discovers that they each have far more going for them than whatever crime landed them there. And each has a different critical skill, one that could help them unearth what is really going on in this place—and how to make it out alive. They are inching ever closer to the truth, and the hidden evil beneath the camp’s surface will make itself known in order to deter them.
What do you think of Josh Ruben signing on to direct Wilderness Reform? Let us know by leaving a comment below. I have enjoyed Ruben’s movies so far, so I’m looking forward to seeing what he’ll do with this one.
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