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Mandalay Pictures has solidified its place atop the Joe Hill fanclub by acquiring the film rights to Hill’s short story "Twittering from the Circus of the Dead".

Heat Vision reports that the studio that is already adapting Hill’s novel "Horns" for the big screen is quickly assembling a creative team behind their latest Hill acquisition. Per the report, director Todd Lincoln (upcoming "The Apparition") is in talks to helm the pic from a screenplay by Chris Borrelli. Hill will serve as an executive producer on the project. In addition to "Twittering" and "Horns", the author (and son of Stephen King) has also seen his comic book series "Locke & Key" adapted into a television pilot by Alex Kurtzman, Robert Orci, Josh Friedman, and director Mark Romanek. His first novel, "Heart Shaped Box", currently resides at Warner Bros.

Originally published in the horror anthology "The New Dead", "Twittering from the Circus of the Dead" is told entirely from the perspective of a teenage girl’s tweets as she and her family embark on a cross country road trip.

In a somewhat surprising twist, Mandalay has received Hill’s blessing to take the adaptation outside of the zombie genre for fear of over-saturation (apparently a new concern in the film industry). That said, the report doesn’t elaborate on the alterations outside of noting a “few surprise changes.”

As for potential director Todd Lincoln, his aforementioned directorial debut "The Apparition" stars Ashley Greene and Sebastian Stan and is currently eyeing a 2012 release stateside for Dark Castle/Warner Bros.