The recently revamped Hammer films (LET ME IN, THE WOMAN IN BLACK) has nabbed the rights to the novel BONESHAKER by Cherie Priest. Television writer John Hilary Shepherd will be writing the screenplay.

BONESHAKER is set in an alternate steampunk version of 1880s Seattle where the city has been cut off and toxic gas has turned much of its population into ‘Rotters’, otherwise known as Zombies. A young woman searches for her teenage son in the underworld whilst having to deal with the Rotters and other unsavoury inhabitants.

The novel is the first in a series of four called ‘The Clockwork Century’ which includes subsequent novels DREADNOUGHT and GANYMEDE with the fourth INEXPLICABLES to be released in 2012. Hammer clearly has a view to turning the books into a franchise. The Zombie movie may be on its last legs but if they are making something this fresh sounding along with next years adaptation of WORLD WAR Z then it looks like the undead will be shambling around for a while yet.

BONESHAKER the novel was nominated for a 2010 Hugo Award for best novel and won the 2010 Locus Award for best science fiction novel. Right, that’s another series added to my reading pile then! 

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