Ghost House Pictures announced today that Neil Cross (“Luther”, Guillermo del Toro’s MAMA) will write THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS, based on the classic sci-fi horror novel written by John Wyndam and the 1962 film Invasion of the Triffids. The film will be produced by Ghost House Pictures, The Mark Gordon Company, and Preger Entertainment, LLC.
Mark Gordon, Michael Preger and Don Murphy are partnering with Ghost House principals Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert to produce. Ghost House principals Nathan Kahane and Joe Drake will executive produce alongside Susan Montford. J.R. Young and Audrey Chon will oversee the project for Ghost House. Drew Simon will supervise the project for The Mark Gordon Company.
Neil Cross created and wrote the highly acclaimed television show “Luther,” which will air its third season on BBC. He was recently named one of Variety’s 10 Screenwriters to Watch for 2012. Cross currently has several feature scripts being produced by Guillermo Del Toro including the horror film MAMA, staring Jessica Chastain, which is in post-production; and an actioner called MIDNIGHT DELIVERY which is on the fast track. Del Toro also enlisted Cross for a polish on his upcoming giant-budget monster movie PACIFIC RIM.
The plot of Wyndam’s novel: Bill Masen, bandages over his wounded eyes, misses the most spectacular meteorite shower England has ever seen. Removing his bandages the next morning, he finds masses of sightless people wandering the city. He soon meets Josella, another lucky person who has retained her sight, and together they leave the city, aware that the safe, familiar world they knew a mere twenty-four hours before is gone forever.
But to survive in this post-apocalyptic world, one must survive the Triffids, strange plants that years before began appearing all over the world. The Triffids can grow to over seven feet tall, pull their roots from the ground to walk, and kill a man with one quick lash of their poisonous stingers. With society in shambles, they are now poised to prey on humankind. Wyndham chillingly anticipates bio-warfare and mass destruction, fifty years before their realization, in this prescient account of Cold War paranoia.
It will be no easy feat creating a movie about killer plants that attack blind people; could end up provoking more laughs than shocks… But there’s the challenge for Cross, Raimi and co.