I read a THR headline that included David Gordon Green and Freaks, and almost shat. First, because I thought the interesting and well-intentioned but unnecessary Suspiria remake might have been finally decreed dead, then because I feared Green had replaced with with a remake of Tod Browning’s amazing, wholly singular Freaks.

Not so, at least in the latter case. Suspiria remains in the grey zone.

The actual news here is that Green is attached to direct an adaptation of the Dark Horse series Freaks of the Heartland by Steve Niles and Greg Ruth. Set in a town where deformed mutant children are being born, the young boy Trevor tries to save his younger brother Will from his father, and eventually hopes to lead all the town’s freaks to safety.

I’m not sold on Niles’s work at all, but I like this idea a lot. It could be a perfect way for Green to explore some of the same visual and visceral ideas that might work into Suspiria, but in a framework that fits much more closely with the beautiful films like George Washington that were his early calling card.

New writers Peter Sattler and Geoff Davey are scripting. Overture Films, the outfit behind the Let the Right One In remake, holds the option and is overseeing.