Max Minghella, the talented young actor from "The Social Network" and "Art School Confidential" (talk about a movie that's been universally forgotten) and son of late director Anthony Minghella, has entered into talks to costar in Alexandre Aja's supernatural thriller "Horns," opposite the former Boy Who Lived, Daniel Radcliffe (according to a report in Variety). The production is set to begin later this fall, and will be financed by Red Granite Pictures (which will also handle foreign sales) and Mandalay Pictures.
"Horns," based on the outstanding novel by Joe Hill (son of one Mr. Stephen King), concerns Ig Perrish (Radcliffe), a lost young man who wakes up one day with devilish horns growing out of his forehead. The horns give off certain powers, like causing people to open up and reveal their innermost secrets (snakes also have a new-found fondness for him, and it'll be interesting to see how they translate that, given the parseltongue connection to his most famous role…). Perrish decides to use these powers to discover who really raped and murdered his girlfriend (most of the town suspects he did it).
Minghella will play Lee Toruneau, a public defender and Ig's best friend, who may know more than he's letting on about the murder. It's one of three really major roles in the piece, with the last one (of Ig's brother) still yet to be cast. At one point Shia LaBeouf was set to star, but he'd probably rather be banging people in Lars von Trier's movie anyway.
"Horns" was adapted by Keith Bunin, a writer from HBO's shrink series "In Treatment," and the movie will be produced by Red Granite's Riza Aziz and Joey McFarland along with Mandalay's Cathy Schulman and Adam Stone. Hill and Red Granite's Joe Gatta will exec produce. It looks like this will be the first movie Aja has made away from his longtime writing/producing partner Gregory Levasseur (unless Levasseur is still on board in a limited capacity).
Aja is the super-talented French director of "High Tension," "Mirrors" and Aja-fied remakes of "The Hills Have Eyes," and "Piranha" (all much bloodier and more political than their original counterparts). His remake of Bill Lustig's immortal "Maniac" (which he co-wrote and co-produced with Levasseur) was just picked up by IFC Midnight after playing at Cannes. We love Aja's work and think he's the perfect person to bring the novel — a heady mixture of pulp and pathos — to the big screen.
Minghella, for his part, just finished shooting Joe Johnston's thriller "Not Safe For Work" for Universal, and is currently working on the Shawn Levy comedy "The Internship" for Fox. We suspect "Horns" could be ready for Halloween next year.