James Wan Bringing 'The Boy Who Drew Monsters' To The Big Screen

Right now James Wan is busy shooting The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Poltergeist, opting to return to horror instead of directing Furious 8 for Universal Pictures (which is having some trouble locking down a director, with Vin Diesel promising an announcement soon). But he'll also be wearing his producing hat for another promising horror project.

New Line has just picked up the rights to The Boy Who Drew Monsters, Keith Donohue's novel which hit shelves last year and arrives on paperback on October 13th, and James Wan will produce the big screen adaptation. So what's the book about?

Here's the official synopsis for The Boy Who Drew Monsters:

Ever since he nearly drowned in the ocean three years earlier, ten-year-old Jack Peter Keenan has been deathly afraid to leave his home in a small coastal town in Maine. Instead, Jack Peter begins to draw monsters, and when those monsters take on a life of their own, no one is safe from the terror they inspire. His mother, Holly, begins to hear strange sounds in the night coming from the ocean. When she seeks answers from the local Catholic priest and his Japanese housekeeper, they fill her head with stories of shipwrecks and ghosts. His father, Tim, wanders the beach, frantically searching for a strange apparition running wild in the dunes. And the boy's only friend, Nick, becomes helplessly entangled in the eerie power of the drawings. While those around Jack Peter are haunted by what they think they see, only he knows the truth behind the terrors that lurk in the outside world.

What you don't get from that description is that in addition to his crippling agoraphobia, Jack also has Asperger's, making him quite the unique young character. There's something about this story that has an Amblin vibe to it, especially since it's described as part drama, ghost story and creature feature.

THR reports Ian Goldberg and Richard Naing will be writing The Boy Who Drew Monsters movie, fresh off scripting The Autopsy of Jane Doe, an indie horror flick starring Emile Hirsch.

As of now there's no director on board, and it doesn't sound like Wan will end up directing (especially since he's got the DC Comics movie Aquaman coming up at Warner Bros. soon, and a TV reboot of MacGyver just announced too) But considering his success with horror, he's sure to find a promising name to put behind the camera. We'll keep you posted as this project develops.