Cassie Hack is one step closer to the screen this morning, with the news that Stephen Susco is on board to write the screenplay for comicbook horror Hack/Slash. Last we heard, commercials director Fredrik Bond was also attached to lead the project.
Susco is suddenly the go-to guy for horror scripts: he's also currently working on The Butcherhouse Chronicles for Platinum Dunes (an adaptation of his own stage play, and an original property for the remake happy house of horror, no less), and the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre for Twisted Pictures.
Hack/Slash itself is a riff on the Final Girl scenario of all good slasher films: Cassie Hack survives a massacre at the hands of a crazed highschool dinner lady and dedicates her life to the killing of killers, with the help of the gasmask-sporting hulk Vlad. It's not what you'd called highbrow, but it's smarter than you might think: Hack is a more complicated heroine than her t&a badass image conveys from a cursory inspection.
Susco describes The Butcherhouse Chronicles as "a play designed to dismantle the archetypes of a typical slasher movie: a high-concept studio movie now, but also a deeply personal piece." That kind of sensibility brought to Hack/Slash could produce something interesting, if it doesn't get diluted along the way.