Gary Dauberman’s Coin Operated production banner has acquired the feature film rights to Yellowjacket Summer, a horror short story by genre author Robert R. McCammon. Using the company’s discretionary development fund, the shingle has tapped newly minted Pulitzer Prize-winner Daniel Kraus (Angel Down, Whalefall) to write the screenplay adaptation.
Originally published in the October 1986 issue of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine, Yellowjacket Summer centers on a mother and her children who find themselves stranded in a decaying Georgia town. The family quickly discovers the settlement has been overtaken by an aggressive swarm of yellowjackets, uncovering a sinister, organized force within the insects that will stop at nothing to protect their hive.
Dauberman will produce the feature alongside Mia Maniscalco under their Coin Operated banner.
“Yellowjacket Summer immediately stood out among the many masterpieces of horror Robert McCammon has written,” Dauberman says. “And there’s no one better suited to the task of adapting it for the big screen than Daniel Kraus, whose work so often combines uniquely horrific concepts with timeless, grounded characters. Together, it has the makings of a creature feature that stings both viscerally and emotionally.”
Kraus added: “Robert R. McCammon is a legend in horror, and I’m honored to adapt one of his best stories – a creature feature with a dash of Tennessee Williams. My goal, which is shared by Gary and Mia, is to make something scary, yes, but also poignant and heartbreaking. It’s a fascinating challenge.”
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The project marks another high-profile move for Kraus, who is riding high on the success of his First World War novel Angel Down, which won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The bestseller had already earned a spot as one of the New York Times’ top 10 books of 2025. On the film front, his award-winning survival thriller novel Whalefall has been adapted into a feature film by 20th Century Studios and is scheduled to hit theaters this October 16. Kraus previously co-authored The Shape of Water with Guillermo del Toro, which was developed concurrently with the Oscar-winning film, as well as the book series Trollhunters, which became an Emmy-winning Netflix animated franchise. His other accolades include the Bram Stoker, Scribe, and Odyssey Awards. He is repped by 3 Arts Entertainment.
Coin Operated, which operates under a first-look production deal with Sony’s Screen Gems, recently saw the Paramount release of the supernatural horror feature Passenger, directed by André Øvredal and starring Melissa Leo, Lou Lloubell, and Jacob Scipio. The company’s upcoming roster includes the New Line horror title The Revenge of La Llorona, helmed by Santiago Menghini, which is slated for a 2027 theatrical release.
The shingle’s deep development roster also includes a modern reboot of the 1990s slasher franchise Urban Legend for Screen Gems; The Medium, a feature translation of the psychological horror video game; an adaptation of Joe Hill’s short story Ushers, also for Screen Gems; the thriller He Never Dies, written and directed by David Yarovesky; and a feature adaptation of Nat Cassidy‘s novella Rest Stop, with Cassidy adapting his own text.
