Legendary has won an auction for screen rights to Ernest, a short story by Geoff Manaugh published on Vice.com, Deadline reports.
Christopher Landon, director of Happy Death Day, as well as Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse and Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, will both adapt the short story into a feature and direct the film.
Manaugh’s short story begins with Jimmy Kimmel asking his TV audience if it wants to see a real ghost. That would be Ernest, so named by the homeowner who discovered him because the apparition looks a bit like Ernest Borgnine. The homeowner, Frank, begins filming his housebound ghost, and sending out the results to the world through social media. The spirit is mostly harmless, confused by his exploitation, but Ernest becomes a global viral sensation.
He conscripts his high school senior Kevin to be part of a series of dinner parties held in the house to cash in on the ghost. This takes a sketchy turn when the teen, and the ghost, turn up missing, endangering Frank’s plans to monetize.
Dan Halsted and Nate Miller are attached as producers.
