Is there a Joe Hill story that isn't optioned right now? I think even the ones unfinished on his laptop are optioned. Combine his name with that of his famous father, Stephen King, and it probably doesn't even have to have more than an opening sentence.

According to Variety, Throttle, the novella Hill co-authored with King, has been optioned by Nick Wechsler. It won't be published until 2009, in an anthology titled He Is Legend that will be dedicated to Richard Matheson. The story follows a father and son, members of a motorcycle gang, who are being chased by an 18-wheeler tanker truck.

It sounds like a real throwback to Duel and Christine, and Wechsler praises its horror element, which he intends to really play up. Being chased by an 18-wheeler seems terrifying enough, so I wonder what other horror could possibly be played up.

Wechsler has an eye for the literary finds. He snagged the rights to Cormac McCarthy's The Road long before it won a Pulitzer, and now that upcoming film is highly anticipated by just about everyone who's read the book. He's also the producer on The Time Traveler's Wife. He certainly seems to know his best-sellers, so perhaps Throttle is destined to be a massive blockbuster. At the very worst, we'll at least get to indulge in a return to the 70s and 80s. Everyone was afraid of cars in those days -- and what with global warming and peak oil, it's time to be again, right?