Long's Ten O'Clock appointment

Justin Long has been offered the lead in new Stephen King movie The Ten O'Clock People.

The Going The Distance star would play the paranoid Brandon Pearson in the modernised adaptation of the horror writer's short story, Deadline reports.

The Ten O'Clock People - said to have been written by King during a three-day frenzy driven by nicotine cravings - follows Brandon, a man attempting to give up smoking, who finds one of the side-effects is that he becomes able to see certain people, including his own boss, are actually aliens trying to take over the planet.

Horror director and scriptwriter Tom Holland has adapted the story from King's 1993 Nightmares And Dreamscapes collection for the big screen and will direct.

The film is due to begin shooting in New York in September.