As Smile nears $200 million at the worldwide box office, the producers are already searching for their next dose of nightmare fuel, and have come up with the terrifying sounding Clown in a Cornfield.
Deadline reports that producers Temple Hill Entertainment, who are responsible for Love, Simon, the Twilight franchise, and The Maze Runner series of films have optioned Adam Cesare’s popular novel of the same name. Franchise potential is already sown in because a sequel, Clown in A Cornfield II: Frendo Lives, was published in August this year, and a third instalment is on the way.
The producers have already approached Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil director Eli Craig to helm the horror, which tells the story of the small town community of Kettle Springs, a place which has cracked in half since the local Corn Syrup Factory shut down. When Quinn Maybrook and her father relocate to the broken down area, they find a town caught in a battle between old and new, tradition and progress. It’s a fight that looks like it will destroy the town. Until Frendo, the old factory mascot, a creepy clown in a pork-pie hat, goes homicidal and decides that the only way for Kettle Springs to grow back is to cull the rotten crop of kids who live there now.
Clowns and cornfields have always served the genre well, just ask Stephen King, and the producers seem intent on focusing on creepy smiles, so Clown in a Cornfield sounds like an interesting premise for some small-town scares.
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