It's not every day that you see a post-apocalyptic, almost-horror novel on Oprah's Book Club. But in April 2007 that's exactly what happened, when the world's most influential woman (sorry, Paris) presented Cormac McCarthy's The Road to her audience - and it climbed straight to the top of the bestseller charts. Now, inevitably, it's set for the screen.
The story is set in a world ravaged by fire following an unexplained disaster, where small bands of human survivors roam the road looking for a safe haven. Amid cannibalism, theft and murder a father and son make the long trek through an ashy landscape, always headed south.
The book is sparse, brilliant and devastating - think No Country For Old Men but with even less optimism (also by McCarthy and with a film version on its way from the Coen Brothers). Now John The Proposition Hillcoat is set to direct (a good fit) with a script by Joe Enduring Love Penhall. Production's due to start in January, and while Viggo Mortensen has been rumoured as a lead, there's no confirmation on that yet.