The Gourd Maniac stalks the streets.

Paramount Pictures is adapting a novel about a town that celebrates the annual arrival of a serial killer with a parade and a pageant. Awesome. Mark Carter, who has a deal to write and direct the project, came across David Prill’s Serial Killer Days while browsing a Barnes & Noble. If it’s not in the Teen Fiction section I wouldn’t have seen it.

Carter tracked down the author in Vermont and scored the movie rights. He then took the project to Thank You for Not Smoking and Up in the Air producer Dan Dubiecki. Their version of the script made the 2008 Black List and now Paramount wants a taste. You may ask yourself, “Why would a town celebrate the arrival of a serial killer?” The answer is, their annual parade brings in a ton of dough from tourists. I’d never want to travel to a place where there’s a good chance you’ll get murdered, but airplanes land in Detroit every day. (THR)