One of the more intriguing announcements of the year has been the potential team-up between megastar Johnny Depp and Edgar Wright, the director behind "Shaun of the Dead," "Hot Fuzz" and "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World," on "The Night Stalker." The film would be a remake of the 1970s Darren McGavin-starring TV movie and subsequent show about Carl Kolchak, a reporter investigating supernatural and science-fiction based cases. Depp's output has been disappointing of late, but if anyone can reinvigorate the actor, it's Wright, in his first brush with a major A-list star.
The film certainly isn't coming in the immediate future: Wright has both "The World's End" and "Ant-Man" brewing before the end of the year. But it's something that they're serious about, as the duo, and studio Disney, have just hired a writer for the project. According to Heat Vision, D.V. DeVincentis, who co-wrote the scripts for John Cusack classics "Grosse Point Blank" and "High Fidelity," has come on board to pen the script. The writer's not had a produced credit for a while, but he did pen Stephen Frears' "Lay The Favorite", which premiered at Sundance earlier in the year, and will hit theaters in a few months.
He's not the most obvious hire, necessarily, but certainly a promising one, given his earlier credits. Assuming he can get the project in shape, we'll probably see "The Night Stalker" in theaters in 2015 or 2016.
I hope this never happens, or that Wright rejects the script and writes his own. There are way too few great writers/directors left working in the English language; I'd hate to lose one.