Before Scott Derrickson vacated the director's seat on DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS earlier this year (with Sam Raimi eventually replacing him at the helm of that film), he said he was going to go straight from that project to making an R-rated adaptation of an unspecified Joe Hill story. And since he's not making the DOCTOR STRANGE sequel, it would make sense if the Hill adaptation were his next film to go into production. Now we know exactly which Hill story Derrickson is planning to bring to the screen.
Derrickson is set to direct an adaptation of Hill's BLACK PHONE for Universal and Blumhouse Productions. Child actors Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw are signed on to appear in the film.
BLACK PHONE has been written by Derrickson and his frequent collaborator C. Robert Cargill. The source material has the following description:
Thirteen-year-old John Finney is locked in a basement that's stained with the blood of half a dozen other murdered children. In the cellar with him is an antique telephone, long since disconnected, but which rings at night with calls from the dead…
BLACK PHONE is one of the stories featured in Hill's short story collection 20TH CENTURY GHOSTS, which you can purchase at THIS LINK.
I haven't read the short story (which is apparently only 45 pages long), but it sounds like it has provided Derrickson with some dark and twisted material to dig into with his adaptation.
Derrickson, Cargill, and Jason Blum are producing BLACK PHONE, with Hill serving as executive producer.