The Kidd here...

Franck Thilliez's French thriller novel Syndrome E has been lying in the weeds since Paramount and Indian Paintbrush landed the rights nearly a year ago, and, while there were plenty of writers positioning themselves to try to land the gig, it looks like Mark Heyman, who has BLACK SWAN to his credit, has been tapped to pen the adaptation, according to Deadline. 

SYNDROME E follows a detective who learns that her friend has been afflicted by a sudden blindness that seems to have been brought on by watching a very rare and highly violent film from the 50s. The discovery is made that the movie is rife with subliminal imagery that winds up killing those who have laid eyes on it. So... like THE RING...? The detective then pairs up with a cop investigating the film's connection to a series of other murders, and it's up to them to find out the meaning of this movie, who made it, where it came from, etc. So like 8MM...?

Casting will make or break this male-female partnership working well enough to pull off this story that features quite a few familiar elements, but having Heyman getting things off and running is a nice start. The novel was an international bestseller, so there must be something to the source material that is hooking people. 

-Billy Donnelly

"The Infamous Billy The Kidd"

BillyTheKidd@aintitcool.com

Follow me on Twitter.

Like me on Facebook.