TOBE HOOPER'S DEBUT HORROR NOVEL MIDNIGHT MOVIE OUT ON JULY 12TH

First announced just about two years ago in June 2009, Tobe Hooper's book project and writing collaboration with prolific writer/novelist/ghost-writer Alan Goldsher - a horror novel titled Midnight Movie (portion of cover above - yes, it appears to be somewhat of a "zombie book") - is now literally just around the corner.

It is being released by mega-publisher Random House, Inc. (division Crown Publishing Group, division Three Rivers Press, publishers of the other zombie books, Max Brooks's 'Zombie Survival Guide' and 'World War Z') less than a week from now: this Tuesday, July 12th, 2011. Pre-ordered copies are now being sent to the die-hards' mailboxes, and I'm sure big boxes are being unpacked by still-lucrative book retailers. And the rest await Tuesday, July 12th with their Kindles locked and ready.

The promotional wheels are gearing up as well, horror entertainment websites as I speak plugging Mr. Hooper's literature debut (and me, this is what I'm doing right now). Here's all the information you need to know so far about this big new unfolding for the filmmaker-now-turned-multi-platform-dabbler (and I say, good for you, Mr. Hooper!):

Tobe Hooper's MIDNIGHT MOVIE, Out JULY 12, 2011

Book Information (courtesy of Random House, Inc.):

Midnight Movie: A Novel

Tobe Hooper and Alan Goldsher
978-0-307-71701-6
Three Rivers Press

The good news: Director Tobe Hooper has been invited to speak at a screening of Destiny Express, a movie he wrote and directed as a teenager, but that hasn’t seen the light of day in decades. And Hooper’s fans are ecstatic.

The bad news: Destiny Express proves to be a killer . . . literally. As the death toll mounts, Tobe embarks on a desperate journey to understand the film’s thirty-year-old origins—and put an end to the strange epidemic his creation has set in motion.

Featuring the terror, humor, and sly documentary style Hooper devotees remember from such classics as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Midnight Movie is vintage Tobe Hooper, again demonstrating the director’s place as one of the godfathers of modern horror.

A book excerpt just put up:

Read an excerpt from Midnight Movie courtesy of

Crown Publishing Group HERE.

And readers/comic-book geeks/horror hounds/attendees of Comic-Con: Tobe Hooper will be making an appearance at the 2011 Comic-Con in San Diego, the 1st day of the Con, Thursday, July 21st, at the Random House booth. If you've got your badge all secured, be sure to catch him. If you don't, here's some extra incentive to figure out how to boondoggle your way into the highly-popular super event.

Tobe Hooper Brings His 'Midnight Movie' to Comic-Con
(via FEARnet)

Tobe Hooper's name became synonymous with screen terror for his iconic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But the horror auteur is now tackling another medium -- the printed page. Hooper's first novel, Midnight Movie, will debut next week, on July 12th, from Three Rivers Press. And Hooper will appear at this month's San Diego Comic-Con, from 2-3:30 PM on Thursday, July 21st at the Random House booth, to sign copies. Check out the full cover art for the novel, as well as a synopsis, after the jump.

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Here's the official synopsis we received from Hooper's publisher Random House...

The good news: Director Tobe Hooper has been invited to speak at a screening of Destiny Express, a movie he wrote and directed as a teenager, but that hasn't seen the light of day in decades. And Hooper's fans are ecstatic.

The bad news: Destiny Express proves to be a killer . . . literally. As the death toll mounts, Tobe embarks on a desperate journey to understand the film's thirty-year-old origins—and put an end to the strange epidemic his creation has set in motion.

Featuring the terror, humor, and sly documentary style Hooper devotees remember from such classics as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Midnight Movie is vintage Tobe Hooper, again demonstrating the director's place as one of the godfathers of modern horror.

Also, become a fan of Midnight Movie at its Facebook page.

And finally, I shall be getting my own hands on a copy and reading the book myself in the ensuing days, so expect soon enough my thoughts on Hooper's little foray into writing!

If you've read the synopsis of the book, it's a fictional horror novel that follows a half-fictional, half-not character-version of Tobe Hooper, a battle-tested film director also in the book and really by-all-means the same person, such that he retains the name and major facets of his life (such as being the director of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre).

Clearly the story goes off wildly from there, though I would imagine a major grabbing point of this book is that it contains some essentially quasi-biographical reflections by Hooper on his actual career and life. From perusing the first few chapters in the excerpt linked to above, this seems to be half the case, half-not (in the first chapter, we find out he's editing a remake of Carrie? Huh?), and salience to any critical surveys of his film works is less in the cards than simply a riotous and outrageous fictional yarn, plus a dash of exposé of the Hooper persona: grizzled and industry-disgruntled, a no-bullshit, gin-and-spit, Southern-fried (and semi-profane) all-around-dude with a broad thing or two to say about what grinds his gears and who's a shitbucket (elementary Cheney jab, page 9). So, a novel that allows Hooper to mouth off for 300 pages, with bonus depraved and really messed-up carnage? Sounds like some fun to be had.