Variety is reporting that Belladonna Productions have optioned the rights to Joe R. Lansdale’s novel COLD IN JULY. And as I mentioned, the men behind MULBERRY STREET will also be behind this one. MULBERRY writer/director Jim Mickle will be directing COLD IN JULY, as well as co-writing the script with MULBERRY writer/actor Nick Damici.
The synopsis is: To kill a man, even in self-defence, is no easy thing for a man with a conscience. He has to answer to himself, put the episode behind him, get on with his life. This is very difficult when the dead man’s father, a murderous ex-con, is determined to avenge the shooting, no matter what the rights and wrongs. Richard Dane is a small businessman, a family man with a son of his own. Ben Russell, the ex-con, has a very simple proposition: an eye for an eye, a son for a son. But the truth is anything but simple, and before long Dane and Russell, misled and manipulated, are awkward allies in a living nightmare of paranoia and psychopathic sex, violence and corruption.
Sounds interesting. Now I haven’t seen MULBERRY STREET, but I’m hearing good things. If those good things are true, chances are COLD IN JULY will be just as good.