Max Brooks' Bigfoot Horror Book Devolution Is Becoming a Movie at Legendary

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Legendary Pictures is looking to bring Bigfoot to the big screen. The studio has picked up the rights to Devolution, the latest from author Max Brooks. The book only just hit shelves, but Legendary didn’t waste any time in getting this tale into development as a feature. Interestingly, it brings the project full circle, as it dates back nearly a decade.

According to a new report, Devolution has officially been optioned by Legendary. No screenwriter is attached currently and it isn’t clear who may be eyed to direct the adaptation. Though it seems to be in the very early stages. Max Brooks had originally been developing the idea with the studio as a movie alongside Jack Bender and David Leslie Johnson. Eventually, the project switched mediums and Brooks reimagined it as a novel. The novel was published on June 16 by Del Rey and has, thus far, received a generally warm reception from critics. Now with the story fleshed out on the page, Brooks and Legendary have teamed up once again to realize it as a movie. The report notes that Bender and Johnson are no longer involved.

Devolution is described as part survival narrative, part bloody horror tale and part scientific journey into the boundaries between truth and fiction. It takes a look at the story of the Greenloop massacre through the journals of Mount Rainier resident Kate Holland. The writings were recovered from the town’s wreckage and captured the tale. Max Brooks brings Kate’s account to light for the first time, reproducing her words alongside his own extensive investigations into the massacre and the legendary beasts supposedly behind it. Kate’s tale brings with it the implication that, if her account is real, Bigfoot exists and it is a ferocious and strong creature.

Even though Hollywood has a long-standing relationship with monster movies and allegedly true tales, there has been an arguably big void that could be filled when it comes to Bigfoot. For the most part, any gritty tellings of the legend have been relegated to low-budget, B-movie affairs, with the occasional standout like Abominable or Willow Creek. Though these movies still generally fail to garner any mainstream attention. Outside of that, we have comedies like Harry and the Hendersons, or recent animated movies such as Missing Link and Smallfoot. But that’s about it. Given the alleged real-world angle, this could lend itself to a cinematic portrayal of an enduring legend.

Max Brooks is best known for his best-selling zombie book World War Z. That novel was also adapted into a feature previously and was released in 2013. The production was famously troubled and the story took a lot of liberties with the source material. A sequel had been in development for years but was declared dead at Paramount last year. We’ll be sure to keep you posted as further details on the project are made available. This news comes to us via The Hollywood Reporter.

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