Hammer Films have announced that they will be filming Boneshaker, based on the novel by Cherie Priest.

Described as a steampunk zombie story – which admittedly makes me die a little inside – the story is set in an alternate Civil War period world, where a toxic gas has turned most of the population into ‘rotters’ – sadly not Terry-Thomas style cads (I’d pay to see that) but zombies.

The 2009 novel is the first in a series that so far stands at three, with a fourth due early 2012, and the screen version is being written by John Hilary Shepherd, and will be co-produced with Cross Creek Pictures. Presumably, the film is planned to be the first of a franchise. No word on a director or when production will start.