BadAsstronauts Blasts Off: Grady Hendrix’s Cult Novella Heads to the Big Screen

Grady Hendrix is back on the adaptation train, and this one is delightfully scrappy: his early novella BadAsstronauts is headed to the big screen at Paramount. Todd Garner and Adam Goldworm are producing, and Hendrix himself is on board as an executive producer.

So, what is BadAsstronauts?

It started life as a novella called Occupy Space before getting retitled BadAsstronauts, and the vibe is pure blue-collar space epic. The lead is a burned-out astrophysicist who decides, against reason and probably several laws, to build a homemade rocket and shoot it into orbit to save his cousin, who is stuck up there. What begins as a backyard long shot turns into a rallying point for a bunch of underdogs who find purpose, family, and pride in the most ridiculous possible mission. It has that scrappy, crowd-pleaser energy if they nail the tone.

Who is making it?

Paramount Pictures is developing the film with producers Todd Garner and Adam Goldworm. Hendrix is executive producing, which is always nice when the author has a seat at the table.

Hendrix in a nutshell

If you somehow missed the last decade of horror paperbacks: Hendrix is widely cited as the second-best-selling horror writer working today, behind Stephen King, with more than 2.4 million books sold worldwide. His bibliography swings from novels to pop-culture deep dives: Satan Loves You, Horrorstor, My Best Friend's Exorcism, Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction, We Sold Our Souls, The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, The Final Girl Support Group, These Fists Break Bricks: How Kung Fu Movies Swept America and Changed the World, How to Sell a Haunted House, and Witchcraft for Wayward Girls. On the film side, he co-wrote Mohawk and Satanic Panic, plus the documentary Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks.

Where the other projects stand

• My Best Friend's Exorcism: Already a feature, released on Prime Video.
• Horrorstor: Once aimed at TV, now being developed as a movie.
• How to Sell a Haunted House: Film set up at Legendary Entertainment.
• The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires: TV adaptation was in the works; seems to be stalled for now.
• The Final Girl Support Group: Same story as Book Club — a TV take that appears to have hit pause.
• Ankle Snatcher: A 29-page short from Amazon Original Stories' Creature Feature collection (which also included pieces by Joe Hill, Josh Malerman, Paul Tremblay, Jason Mott, and Chandler Baker). Set up for a film at Sony.
• The Blanks: A 35-page story in Amazon's The Shivers collection (alongside Stephen Graham Jones, Catriona Ward, Owen King, and Joe Hill again). Set for a film with 21 Laps, Aperture Entertainment, and Netflix.

Why this one stands out

BadAsstronauts leans into Hendrix's sweet spot: big-hearted weirdness with a sharp hook. The 'let's build a rocket in the yard and save a family member' premise is outlandish on its face, but the human stuff underneath — purpose, pride, community — is exactly why his stories keep getting snapped up. Also, fun bit of trivia: this is one of his earliest publications, originally titled Occupy Space, which makes the glow-up to a Paramount movie a nice full-circle moment.