"The Southern Book Club’s Guide To Slaying Vampires" TV Adaptation in Works

A comedy series based on Grady Hendrix’s New York Times bestseller "The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires" is in development at HBO, with the author writing alongside "The Righteous Gemstones" duo Danny McBride and Edi Patterson.

The project was previously in development at Amazon with Patrick Moran’s PKM Productions but has now moved to the Warner Bros Discovery premium network without Moran’s involvement.

Hendrix, McBride, and Patterson will exec produce, alongside Brandon James for McBride’s Rough House Pictures. Quirk Books published the novel and will also have an exec producer credit.

"The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires" follows a women’s book club that must protect its suburban community from a mysterious and handsome stranger that may be a vampire killing their children.

The book, published in May 2021, is set in Charleston and described as Steel Magnolias meets Dracula.

It follows Patricia Campbell, whose life has never felt smaller. Her husband is a workaholic, her teenage kids have their own lives, her senile mother-in-law needs constant care, and she’s always a step behind on her endless to-do list. The only thing keeping her sane is her book club, a close-knit group of Charleston women united by their love of true crime. At these meetings, they’re as likely to talk about the Manson family as they are about their own families.

One evening after a club meeting, Patricia is viciously attacked by an elderly neighbor, bringing the neighbor’s handsome nephew, James Harris, into her life. James is well-traveled and well-read, and he makes Patricia feel things she hasn’t felt in years. But when children on the other side of town go missing, their deaths written off by local police, Patricia has reason to believe James is more of a Bundy than a Brad Pitt. 

The real problem? James is a monster of a different kind —and Patricia has already invited him in. Little by little, James will insinuate himself into Patricia’s life and try to take everything she took for granted — including the book club — but she won’t surrender without a fight in this blood-soaked tale of neighborly kindness gone wrong.

Hendrix is the author of over a dozen books including"My Best Friend’s Exorcism", which was adapted for film by Prime Video in 2022, and "Horrorstör", which was previously in the works as a series for Fox and is now in the works as a movie with New Republic Pictures. 

He also co-wrote the script for the 2017 movie "Mohawk and Satanic Panic for Fangoria". The author is also behind "How to Sell a Haunted House", which is set up at Legendary with Grady adapting, James Ashcroft directing and Ghost House and Aperture producing, as well as the short story Ankle Snatcher, which is set up at Columbia with Escape Artist and Aperture producing. His next book, "Witchcraft For Wayward Witches", is set to be released on January 14 by Berkley.