Deadline is reporting that The Jim Henson Company has snapped up the film rights to Hug Chickenpenny: The Panegyric of an Anomalous Child, the new novel from filmmaker S. Craig Zahler (Bone Tomahawk, Brawl in Cell Block 99), and have tapped him to direct a big screen adaptation.
Described as a “gothic, Dickensian take on The Elephant Man”, the novel follows Hug, “a hopeful, physically asymmetrical boy who faces challenges in an orphanage, and the weird and dangerous world outside after he is adopted by an elderly eccentric as a pet.” The character of Hug will be realised by animatronic puppets created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop (Dark Crystal, Labyrinth).
The Hug Chickenpenny novel is set for release on January 23rd, while Zahler is currently in post-production on Dragged Across Concrete, a cop thriller starring Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn.
