Skip to main content

Hulu’s Locke & Key adaptation signs It director Andy Muschietti

Hulu’s Locke & Key adaptation signs It director Andy Muschietti

Share this story

IDW

The TV adaptation of Joe Hill’s horror comic Locke & Key received a pilot order from Hulu back in April, but stalled after Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson jumped ship to focus on TNT’s Snowpiercer series.

Now things seem to be back on track, as Empire reports that Mama director Andy Muschietti is jumping in as the new director. His adaptation of Stephen King’s It is coming this September. Joe Hill is Stephen King’s son, so it’s sort of fun that they’re sharing a director, if you’re into very subtle human drama.

Hill developed the pilot script last year with showrunner Carlton Cuse, best known for Lost, and most recently for The Strain. Muschietti has also brought on his sister Barbara, who produced Mama and It.

Update: Muschietti’s agent is having a busy day, as The Hollywood Reporter reports that Muschietti has also signed on to direct a film adaptation of the ‘80s anime Robotech. Sony picked up the rights to the property in 2015, and initially had Aquaman’s James Wan in mind to direct.

Hill’s six-volume series, with art by Gabriel Rodríguez, is widely considered his masterwork. Locke & Key follows Nina Locke and her three children, who start a new life in a weird house full of magical keys and portals to another world. There have been attempts to adapt it before: 20th Century Fox made a pilot starring Lord of the Rings’ Miranda Otto and Once Upon a Time’s Sarah Bolger back in 2010, but ultimately decided the series would be too expensive. Universal Pictures was going to make a film trilogy produced by Star Trek’s Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, but that project fizzled, too. With this pilot’s early turmoil out of the way, and a huge budget for original content, Hulu might be the studio to finally make something out of it.

Updated July 17th 3:51 PM ET: Updated to include Muschietti’s hiring for Robotech.