Christopher Landon Is Directing THE FINAL GIRL SUPPORT GROUP for Paramount
Paramount Pictures is developing a feature film adaptation of Grady Hendrix’s The Final Girl Support Group, with Christopher Landon set to both write and direct.
If you've followed Landon's career, this pairing makes a lot of sense. He's spent years putting his own fun spin on horror with films like Happy Death Day, Freaky, Heart Eyes, and entries in the Paranormal Activity franchise.
Now he's taking on one of Hendrix's most popular novels, which puts a clever twist on one of horror's most iconic character archetypes.
For anyone unfamiliar with the novel, The Final Girl Support Group plays with one of horror's most recognizable tropes. Instead of focusing on the terrifying night that creates a "final girl," it asks the much more interesting question of what happens after the credits roll.
The official description reads: "In horror movies, the final girls are the ones left standing when the credits roll. They made it through the worst night of their lives…but what happens after?
“From chain saws to summer camp slayers, The Final Girl Support Group pays tribute to and slyly subverts our most popular horror films—movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Scream.
“Lynnette Tarkington is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre. For more than a decade, she’s been meeting with five other final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, working to put their lives back together.
“Then one woman misses a meeting, and their worst fears are realized—someone knows about the group and is determined to rip their lives apart again, piece by piece.
“But the thing about final girls is that no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up."
This also marks another collaboration between Landon and Hendrix. Landon previously produced the film adaptation of My Best Friend's Exorcism for Amazon Studios, and now they're reuniting for what could be another fun and bloody ride.
The project has had an interesting journey to the big screen. It was originally in development as an HBO Max series with Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, and Charlize Theron attached as producers.
While Theron is no longer involved with the adaptation, the It filmmakers remain onboard through their Double Dream banner. Adam Goldworm and Aperture Entertainment, which represents Hendrix, are also continuing as producers. Hendrix himself will serve as an executive producer on the film.
Paramount is clearly becoming a home for Hendrix's work. The studio is also developing his novella Bad Asstronauts, with Todd Garner and Goldworm producing while Hendrix executive produces.
The novel became a New York Times bestseller after its release from Random House/Berkley and earned the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Horror Novel of 2021.
The title itself refers to a Los Angeles support group made up of six women who each survived separate mass murder sprees, the kinds of traumatic events that inspired the slasher movies that dominated theaters throughout the 1980s and '90s. Their survival turned them into reluctant public figures.
Landon has built a career around finding fresh angles within familiar horror formulas, so adapting a story that celebrates and flips classic slasher conventions feels like a natural fit. He recently directed the Blumhouse thriller Drop, starring Meghann Fahy and Brandon Sklenar, for Universal Pictures.
With a filmmaker who clearly loves playing with horror conventions and a novel that's packed with references to slasher classics, this adaptation has all the ingredients to become something horror fans will want to keep an eye on.