The first image from the movie adaptation of Stephen King’s zombie cautionary tale, CELL, has premiered at Blairwitch.de. The image shows cast members John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Isabelle Fuhrman and Owen Teague looking off-screen, with bemused expressions. While the image is hardly the most revealing or intriguing, it does at least set the tone, somewhat. It does look awfully chilly.

The story itself is concerned with a zombie pandemic that spreads via a signal simultaneously sent to every mobile phone in the world, representing King’s own distrust and reluctance to own a mobile. With the influx of smart phones since the novel’s debut in 2006, the message is even more pressing.

The adaptation has been in development for almost as long as the book has been released. Torture porn enthusiast Eli Roth was originally in line for directorial duties, instead, Tod ‘Kip’ Williams, director of PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2, is the man behind the camera. The screenplay was, interestingly enough, written by King himself, alongside Adam Alleca, screenwriter for the unnecessary LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT remake.

CELL isn’t one of King’s standout novels and contains many of his familiar tropes – they do head towards Maine, after all, as the group of strangers try to find Cusack’s son. The film is, on King’s part, a self-confessed homage to the pioneering classic George A. Romero zombie flicks. With that in mind, it ought to be worth a watch.

CELL is set for a 2015 release, though no official dates have been given.

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