Sony Pictures Animation has optioned Chuck Sambuchino’s humor book, How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack: Defend Yourself When the Lawn Warriors Strike (and They Will), to be developed as a an R-rated live-action/CG-hybrid.
Even better, Robert Zemeckis (right) has signed on to produce the picture under his ImageMovers banner. Zemeckis is best known for directing FORREST GUMP and the BACK TO THE FUTURE series, but he has produced some genre fare in the past, including “TALES FROM THE CRYPT”, THE FRIGHTENERS and HOUSE OF WAX.
Zemeckis will produce with his ImageMovers partner Jack Rapke, as well as Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Eric Robinson and Jackie Levine. Zemeckis is not committed to direct, but it is an option. No screenwriter is attached. The film is budgeted at around $20-30 million.
Naturally, this will be more comedy than horror, but that doesn’t mean there is no connection to the genre. After all, it is about killer garden gnomes! Check out a description of the book (which you can order HERE) below. It sounds like an even more humorous take on Max Brooks’ The Zombie Survival Guide:
Move over zombies and adolescent vampires. There’s a new threat in town—and it’s only twelve inches tall. How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack is the only comprehensive survival guide that will help you prevent, prepare for, and ward off an imminent home invasion by the common garden gnome. Once thought of as harmless yard decorations, evidence is mounting that these smiling lawn statues are poised and ready to wreck havoc. The danger is real. And it’s here.
Class 1 gnome-slayer and gnome defense expert Chuck Sambuchino has developed a proven system—Assess, Protect, Defend, Apply—for safeguarding property, possessions, and loved ones. Strategies include step-by-step instructions for gnome-proofing the average dwelling, recognizing and interpreting the signs of a gathering hoard, and—in the event that a secured perimeter is breached—confronting and combating the attackers at close range.
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