David Lowery Is About To Turn A Beloved Horror Novel Into His Darkest Film Yet

David Lowery has spent his career chasing ghosts, quite literally. From the quiet haunting of ‘A Ghost Story’ to the melancholic dread of ‘Mother Mary,’ the filmmaker has built a reputation for stories about grief, memory, and the things people cannot let go of. That thread runs through nearly everything he touches, whether it is a Disney family film or a medieval fantasy epic.

Horror fans have long pointed to John Langan’s novel ‘The Fisherman’ as a story tailor made for someone with Lowery’s sensibilities. Published in 2016, the book quietly built a devoted following among genre readers for the way it wove folklore, loss, and cosmic dread into something both intimate and sprawling.

Now that pairing is officially happening. Focus Features has picked up the rights to adapt Langan’s Bram Stoker Award winning horror novel, with Lowery attached to direct, according to a report from The Hollywood Reporter. Lowery will also co-write the script alongside filmmaker Alex Ross Perry, known for ‘Her Smell’ and ‘Pavements.’

The novel follows Abe and Dan, two widowers who bond over fishing getaways in upstate New York as a way to cope with their grief. Their routine trips take a darker turn when Dan suggests they try a new and isolated spot called Dutchman’s Creek, a place whispered to let people see their lost loved ones again. A local’s grim warning about the creek’s history does nothing to stop them, and the pair eventually comes face to face with Der Fisher, also known as the Fisherman.

The project brings together some heavyweight horror muscle behind the camera. Michael Bay, along with Brad Fuller and Alex Ginno of Platinum Dunes, the banner behind ‘A Quiet Place’ and ‘The Purge’ franchises, are producing, joined by Gary Dauberman, the writer behind New Line’s ‘It’ and ‘Annabelle’ films, and Mia Maniscalco under their company Coin Operated. Platinum Dunes is currently deep in production on ‘A Quiet Place Part III,’ and was recently involved with the ‘Anaconda’ reimagining and the thriller ‘Drop.’

‘The Fisherman’ arrives with real literary credibility behind it. The novel won the 2016 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel, and beat out fellow nominees including ‘Hard Light,’ ‘Mongrels,’ ‘Stranded,’ and ‘Disappearance at Devil’s Rock’ to take the honor. Critics and fellow authors have long praised its blend of cosmic and folk horror, and the book’s cover carries a striking endorsement from author Laird Barron, who calls it an epic yet intimate horror novel that channels the spirits of M.R. James, Robert E. Howard, and Norman Maclean.

For Lowery, this marks a shift into a more overt horror register, though not an unfamiliar one thematically. His filmography spans the modern Western romance ‘Ain’t Them Bodies Saints,’ the fantasy drama ‘A Ghost Story,’ two Disney features in ‘Pete’s Dragon’ and ‘Peter Pan & Wendy,’ and the acclaimed medieval tale ‘The Green Knight.’ No release date has been announced yet for ‘The Fisherman,’ but the pairing of Lowery’s haunted storytelling instincts with Bay’s genre machinery already feels like a strange and promising catch.

Would you trust David Lowery to pull you into the waters of Dutchman’s Creek, or does pairing his ghostly sensibilities with Michael Bay’s horror empire feel like an odd match made for the big screen?