Smushing together genres the way he once crammed together holidays for “The Best Chrismukkah Ever,” The O.C. creator Josh Schwartz has brought a new “horror dramedy” about a potentially haunted IKEA-ripoff to his old friends at Fox. The new show, Horrorstör, is based on a novel by writer Grady Hendrix, which imaginatively combines a catalog for Swedish big box furniture store “ORSK” with a tale about three employees who spend the night there to discover the root of a series of mysterious disturbances.
Schwartz is reuniting for a series-length adaptation of the book with producer Gail Berman, who helped him become the youngest series creator in Hollywood history when she greenlit The O.C. during her tenure as entertainment president for Fox. Berman’s Jackal Group picked up the rights to Horrorstör after writer and director Charlie Kaufman brought the book to her attention. (Kaufman is an executive producer on the show, although it’s not clear how much of his inventive imagination will end up on the shelves of the show’s fictional store.) Fox has given a put pilot order to the series, which will center on a young woman who realizes that the products she helps sell at ORSK are sinisterly, supernaturally perfect fits for her customer’s lives.