Samuel L. Jackson joins the cast of Stephen King’s Cell

Stephen King‘s CELL has been in development for quite some time and hasn’t really gained much steam. After Eli Roth said it would be his next directing project, it fell down the rabbit hole of development hell. Roth has since departed and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 director Tod Williams has taken the reins. John Cusack has long been attached to star and now Samuel L. Jackson has joined Cusack in a supporting role.

Jackson will play former soldier Tom McCourt who teams up with Cusack’s Clay Riddell to escape Boston during the event at the center of CELL. The two actors previously worked together on the Stephen King haunted hotel movie 1408. While that was a single set horror movie, CELL takes a much larger, zombie-esque apocalypse scenario that will appeal to fans of THE WALKING DEAD.

The pic focuses on the fallout when a powerful signal is broadcast across cell phone networks worldwide. The signal re-programs the users’ minds and makes them murderous beasts.

While I enjoyed CELL for what it was, the novel was not nearly the best of King’s work. The idea of cell phones turning people into zombie-like monsters has been done on screen in the seven years since the novel was published, so it remains to be seen if this can actually do something unique with the plot. Stephen King did draft the script along with Adam Alleca (LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT), so there is that.

CELL currently does not have a distributor or a release date, but expect news to pick up now that a second big name actor has joined the cast.