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Blumhouse Scores Small Screen Rights to Acclaimed Serial Killer Novel The Quiet Tenant
The book has only been on the U.S. market for a day!
Blumhouse has officially scooped up the small screen rights to author Clémence Michallon's acclaimed serial killer novel, The Quiet Tenant — a mere day after its wide publication in the United States. The horror-centric production banner founded and operated by Jason Blum announced today that it plans to develop the book (now on sale from Knopf) into either a limited series or streaming movie.
"I read Clémence’s novel in one sitting and was riveted," Blum said in a statement Wednesday morning. "The story has all the elements of a great screen adaptation."
"Jason Blum is one of the most dynamic producers working today with an enviable slate of motion picture and television credits, and every one of them has viewers tethered to the screen," added Michallon, who will serve as an executive producer on the adaptation. "His vision for bringing The Quiet Tenant to viewers is incredibly strong. I am thrilled he has taken an interest in my work and to be collaborating with him on this project."
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Described as "a searing thriller and an astute study of trauma, survival, and the dynamics of power," The Quiet Tenant is told not from the perspective of the aforementioned killer, but from those of his three victims: wife, daughter, and a woman marked for death.
"I knew from the beginning that my serial killer would not get to speak," Michallon explained. "I’m a reporter by trade, so I took writing an authentic serial killer novel as a great responsibility. Since the serial killer here victimizes women, there was something important in the centering of female voices."
"In less capable hands, so many points of view could have felt messy and confusing; but Michallon makes deft use of this structure to build momentum toward a white-knuckle climax, when the three story lines converge," writes Jac Jemc in their review for The New York Times.
No word yet on which studio will release the project, but Blumhouse currently enjoys a first-look deal with Universal Pictures, which partnered with the production banner on the recent trilogy of Halloween films, The Black Phone, M3GAN, The Exorcist: Believer (opening in theaters Oct. 13), Five Nights at Freddy's (opening in theaters and on Peacock Oct. 27), and Speak No Evil.
Want more thrills from Blumhouse in the meantime? You Should Have Left, They/Them, SICK, and M3GAN (both the theatrical and unrated versions) are now streaming on Peacock.
