He's already Kyle Reese and Pavel Chekov, but now Anton Yelchin is adding Odd Thomas to his listof franchise roles. He'll star in the first of what all concerned are hoping will be a series of adaptations based on Dean Koontz's oddball horror series.
Thomas is a California chef with the ability to talk to the spirit world: he sees dead people... and then he does something about it. Leaving aside his kitchen utensils for spates of paranormal investigating, his first adventure involves his detecting services being secured by a murdered girl, and a catastrophic event looming over the desert town of Pico Mundo. There's also a character called Fungus Man. And Elvis.
Running alongside the main plots of the four novels (Odd Thomas is followed by Forever Odd, Brother Odd and Odd Hours plus comic-book prequel, In Odd We Trust) are ongoing threads detailing Thomas' past and the development of his powers. Plenty for Yelchin to sink his teeth into, in other words. Koontz has been talking up an Odd Thomas movie for a couple of years, and has always said an actor was already in place to star. We wonder if it was Yelchin all along, or whether someone in Hollywood is currently gnashing his teeth and tearing his hair out.
Stephen Sommers (The Mummy, GI Joe) is directing, which might lead us to expect PG-13 scares and lots of CGI. But maybe he'll surprise us. And maybe this is why he ejected from the Joe sequel. There doesn't seem to be a start date yet, but the ball is rolling. Yelchin is clearly on a horror kick at the moment: he's also Charlie in the Fright Night remake. If you're familiar with the books, tell us what you think of his casting in the comments below.