John Cusack is stepping away from his usual slate of romantic comedies to enter the world of Stephen King. Cusack has been cast in the upcoming movie adaptation of King’s short story 1408.

Variety says the film is being directed by Mikael Hafstrom, who last worked on the movie Derailed and written by the screenwriters of The People Vs. Larry Flynt, Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. I’ve been reading a lot of Stephen King lately, but have never stumbed onto this one. Hafstrom describes it as a “one-man show” and a “contained drama”, which sounds pretty good.

John’s last movie was the critically panned dark heist movie The Ice Harvest. His last hit was the rom-com Must Love Dogs, and his last good movie was 2003 movie Identity, which I finally got around to watching about a month ago. Wow, seriously, give that one a shot.

1408 starts shooting this summer, so look for it in theaters some time in 2007.