Night Stalker (with Depp producing) gets a director

[madscntst]

I hope this is the right forum for this.  Last year, we heard that Johnny Depp and his company Infinitum Nihil had picked up The Night Stalker to develop.  I didn't see a thread for it here, only one post from last year mentioning it.  Today, Deadline.com reports that a director has been attached (and several other film/horror sites have already picked up the story).  It is Edgar Wright, who previously directed Shaun of the Dead (one of my fave zombie movies!) and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.  There as as of yet no writer.  It tickles me that Johnny would play both Barnabas and Kolchak 

Article here from Deadline.com:
Disney Taps Edgar Wright To Helm Johnny Depp In ‘The Night Stalker’ Feature Redo

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Interesting. It's nice to hear there's been some movement on the project. And, yes, this is definitely the place to post about it.    Thanks for the update. 

[KMR]

Wow, this is really cool news! I wonder how much deeper Depp is going to go in the Dan Curtis oeuvre?  Maybe he'll tackle Supertrain soon!   

[borgosi]

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=87349
Coming Soon is reporting that Johnny Depp will team with Edgar Wright to do The Night Stalker for Walt Disney Pictures. Wright will direct with Depp to play Carl Kolchak. Wright is best known for Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

It seems that another Dan Curtis classic will be made into a comedy.

I know that we know nothing about "The Night Stalker" yet but what was the last horror film that Disney made? And I'm sure we will hear how big a fan of the original Depp is.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I wonder how much deeper Depp is going to go in the Dan Curtis oeuvre?  Maybe he'll tackle Supertrain soon!   

   But please no! One version of that was already more than enough. 

[KMR]

But I never even got to see the original Supertrain!  (Should I be considering myself lucky?)

Not sure about the choice of director for Night Stalker, since he's mainly only done comedy.  But then again, that doesn't mean he can't do anything else.  AFAIK we don't have any idea of what kind of conversations they've had about approach to the material.

[DLA75]

I think William H Macy would be a better fit to play Carl Kolchak

[Mysterious Benefactor]

But I never even got to see the original Supertrain!  (Should I be considering myself lucky?)

Indeed you should. Not only is it included on TV Guide's list of the worst television programs, it's considered one of the biggest flops in all of television history because it cost so much to produce and very little of what it cost ever translated well on screen. Many have said that it's a wonder that DC was able to salvage his career after it was such a huge failure.

[KMR]

Well, it must not have hurt his reputation too much, since he was able to produce and direct the very expensive (estimated $35 million) Winds of War a few years later!

Somebody mentioned William H. Macy as a good pick to play Kolchak.  I agree (he's one of my favorite actors), although he's definitely on the other side of the age range parts like this usually go to.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Well, it must not have hurt his reputation too much, since he was able to produce and direct the very expensive (estimated $35 million) Winds of War a few years later!

Well, that's what I was getting at - many in the industry were beyond shocked that ABC took the gamble with him after the Supertrain fiasco. There were all sorts of articles wondering what in heaven's name ABC was thinking? Surely they had lost their minds! But DC was nothing if not a persuasive salesman and most of the time he got what he wanted. And, of course, in the end all the naysayers had to eat their words when WoW became such a huge success. Though several articles still had to twist the knife by wondering how the man responsible for Supertrain had been able to pull it off. But I suspect DC laughed his way all the way to the Emmy podium.

[KMR]

Okay, now I understand the wording of your previous comment, MB.  But it looks like they must have taken the rest of his track record into account.  Curtis did actually make two rather good TV movies just before and after Supertrain (When Every Day Was the 4th of July in 1978 and The Long Days of Summer in 1980).  And apart from the Supertrain debacle (I just saw there's a big web site devoted to the show that I'm going to have to explore), I think Curtis was known for being able to deliver on modest budgets.

[Gerard]

I vaguely remember watching a few episodes of Supertrain, and while it certainly wasn't All in the Family in high quality, I didn't think it was all that bad.  It certainly was no worse than The Love Boat (and I recall it being billed as "Love Boat on Rails") and look how high in the ratings that really terrible show was.  I think DS and the network was just trying to capitalize on a hit premise, the way the networks tried to capitalize on the success of Bewitched with such things as My Favorite Martian and I Dream of Jeannie.  In this case, it just didn't take.

Gerard