The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires TV series from Danny McBride doesn’t have momentum at HBO

Back in February of 2020, which was two months before author Grady Hendrix’s novel The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires (pick up a copy HERE) was even published, it was announced that a PKM Productions, which had a deal with Amazon Studios, had secured the adaptation rights. But apparently PKM Productions just couldn’t get The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires off the ground at Amazon, and last year the project passed over to HBO and Rough House Pictures, with Hendrix collaborating on the adaptation with The Righteous Gemstones duo Danny McBride and Edi Patterson. Nine months have gone by since we heard the show was set up in HBO – and now, McBride has told The Hollywood Reporter that it hasn’t gained much momentum yet.

Described as “Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias meet Dracula,” The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires is set in 1990s Charleston, South Carolina and tells the following story: Patricia Campbell’s life has never felt smaller. Her ambitious husband is too busy to kiss her good-bye in the morning, her kids are wrapped up in their own lives, and she’s always a step behind on thank-you notes and endless chores. The one thing she has to look forward to is her book club, a close-knit group of Charleston women united by their love of true crime and suspenseful fiction. This predictable pattern is upended when Patricia is viciously attacked by an elderly neighbor, bringing the neighbor’s handsome relative, James Harris, into her life. Sensitive and well-read, James makes Patricia feel things she hasn’t felt in twenty years. But there’s something… off… and then Patricia’s senile mother-in-law insists she knew him back when she was a girl. When local children go missing, Patricia has reason to believe that James may be more Bundy than Beatnik. But once she and the book club members investigate further, the true monster emerges — and he’s far more terrifying than any serial killer they’ve ever read about.

If the TV series adaptation were to move forward, Hendrix, McBride, and Patterson would be executive producing with Brandon James. Quirk Books, which published the novel, would also receive an executive producing credit.

When The Hollywood Reporter asked him for a status update on The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, McBride said, “We haven’t gotten much momentum on it. Even at HBO, it’s tough making a 30-minute show ensemble that mixes genres. Really difficult. I love that property and would love to do something with it, but I don’t know. We worked on it for a bit and we weren’t getting the reaction to it that we were wanting. It’s sort of floating out there right now.“

Since the idea of a TV series adaptation of The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires already fell apart when it was in the hands of PKM Productions and Amazon, it’s a shame to hear that it’s not doing very well with Rough House Pictures and HBO, either.

Would you like to see a The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires TV series happen at HBO? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.

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