Mike Flanagan’s Should Adapt Joe Hill’s Heart Shaped Box

Mike Flanagan has made a name for himself over the past decade or so for being one of the brightest names in horror storytelling. Projects like The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, Hush, Oculus, and The Fall of the House of Usher have turned Flanagan into a go-to writer/director in the genre. Flanagan’s work, while suitably creepy and macabre, also leans more optimistic than usual horror fare, marking him as a bit of an outlier compared to his peers.

Another peculiar aspect of Flanagan’s career resides in his numerous adaptations of Stephen King’s work. The trend began with 2017’s Gerald’s Game, based on King’s 1992 novel of the same name. Flanagan’s next film was 2019’s Doctor Sleep, based on King’s 2013 novel of the same name. Flanagan’s inclination towards adapting King’s work continued with the recently released The Life of Chuck and is only growing stronger as Flanagan is currently working on new adaptations of both Carrie and The Dark Tower for Amazon. With all of that said, what if Flanagan decided to move from adapting King’s work to adapting the work of King’s son, Joe Hill?

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Joe Hill, AKA Joseph Hillström King, Is Stephen King’s Son And A Prolific Writer Himself

Like Father, Like Son

Joe Hill is the pen name of Stephen King’s second child, Joseph Hillström King [Ed. Note: for clarity’s sake, Hill will be the name used for the remainder of the article]. Hill has had a storied writing career himself, publishing numerous novels, short stories, screenplays, and comic books over the years. Hill’s latest novel, King Sorrow, is currently set for release in October 2025.

Although Hill’s novels have earned him much notoriety, he is perhaps best known for writing horror comics. After all, the long-running, award-winning Locke & Key series was turned into a Netflix television show back in 2019. Following the success of Locke & Key, Hill went on to write other popular comic book series like The Cape, Basketful of Heads, and Plunge.

Heart-Shaped Box Is Joe Hill’s Debut Novel That Was Released In 2007

Wonder If He Likes Nirvana?

After Joe Hill‘s short-story collection 20th Century Ghosts was published in 2005 to widespread acclaim, Heart-Shaped Box soon followed in 2007. It tells the story of a past-his-prime rock star who is extremely into collecting morbid curiosities. This leads him to a so-called haunted funeral suit online. The fading celebrity can’t help himself and purchases the suit, which is supposed to have the spirit of a deceased man somehow attached to it.

When the suit finally arrives at his door, it is placed in—you guessed it—a heart-shaped box. All kinds of chaos ensues when the suit turns out to actually be cursed, setting off a chain of events that goes down some really dark roads. Essentially, it’s everything you’d expect from the offspring of Stephen King. Also, the four distinct sections of the novel are named after songs by Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Nine Inch Nails, and Pearl Jam, with the title of the book coming from the Nirvana song of the same name (duh).

Mike Flanagan Would Be The Perfect Person To Adapt Heart-Shaped Box

Even If He Is A Little Busy At The Moment

Funnily enough, Heart-Shaped Box has been slated for an adaptation pretty much since its initial release. Warner Bros. acquired the rights to the novel back in 2007, with Avika Goldsman of A Beautiful Mind, Fringe, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds fame set to produce. Neil Jordan, who directed ’90s hits like The Crying Game and Interview with the Vampire, was set to write and direct the project, but one has to imagine that having back-to-back box office flops in 2007’s The Brave One and 2009’s Ondine caused WB to get cold feet.

A film adaptation of Heart-Shaped Box has been stuck in development hell ever since, even though numerous adaptations of Hill’s work have come and gone. Locke & Ley and NOS4A2 were both turned into television series, and Horns, In the Tall Grass, and The Black Phone have all been turned into films. And yet, Heart-Shaped Box is stuck in the mud.

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Flanagan would be the perfect person to bring the story to the big screen, assuming he could find time to do it. Look at something like The Haunting of Hill House for evidence of this, as both Hill House and Heart-Shaped Box have a lot to do with past family trauma manifesting in the supernatural. Hill’s 2007 debut novel isn’t an out-and-out horror tale, as it ends with the rock-star protagonist using paranormal means to wrong a decades-long wrong and getting married. Flanagan is an expert at using horrific tales to tell human stories, which is exactly what the story needs.

Mike Flanagan is just the person to get Heart-Shaped Box out of development hell. Here’s hoping he can find the time to actually do so.