Tea Shop Productions, the company behind 47 Meters Down, has hired Imitation Girl and Lucky director Natasha Kermani to write and direct a feature adaptation of Joe Hill's short story Abraham's Boys.
The Abraham in question here is vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing. Hill's action-horror story is said to be a "follow-up of sorts" to Bram Stoker's Dracula and
tests the relationships Stoker formed in his original novel. The plot follows Max and Rudy Van Helsing, who know nothing of their father Abraham’s past and cannot understand his overprotective attitude and strange behavior. To make matters worse, Abraham is becoming increasingly more unhinged, paranoid, and violent.
Kermani's film will
explore the boys’ trauma through the eyes of a young Asian woman who is no stranger to death.
The writer/director had this to say about the project:
I’ve always loved Bram Stoker’s Dracula and was immediately drawn to Joe Hill’s unique and personal take on the legend of Van Helsing. Abraham’s Boys is an exciting opportunity to look at a familiar story through a new lens, and to explore classic characters and themes in a contemporary way."
Tea Shop's James Harris added:
I have always loved Joe’s short story, it has such an amazing tone and feel, so when we met Natasha we were blown away by how she wanted to approach it. Natasha is an exciting new filmmaker we are delighted to collaborate with."
I've been a fan of Joe Hill's father Stephen King pretty much my entire life, and it's becoming more and more clear that I really need to dig into Hill's work as well. So far the only Hill story I have read is the Duel-inspired Throttle, which he wrote with his father. Abraham's Boys sounds very interesting to me.