Movies
Ben Stiller Uses Fox’s ‘RentaGhost’ Service
Ben Stiller will star in RentaGhost, based on the British comedy series about a temp agency for the dead, for Fox.
Variety reports that Fox is in negotiations to acquire rights to the comedy, which had been in development at Warner Bros. with Russell Brand toplining.
Fox has tapped the Night at the Museum team of Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant to pen the script.
The original BBC series, created by Bob Block, ran for 58 episodes between 1976 and 1984 and centered on the recently-deceased Fred Mumford being determined to be more productive in the afterlife than he was during his 27-year existence. Mumford established RentaGhost — renting out ghouls, ghosts and other specters — to the living but things do not go according to plan.
Michael Staniforth, Edward Brayshaw, Michael Darbyshire and Anthony Jackson starred in the TV series.
Movies
‘Desperation’ – Sam Raimi and ‘Final Destination Bloodlines’ Directors Teaming for Stephen King Movie
Stephen King’s 1996 novel Desperation is headed back to the screen, with Jeff Sneider breaking the news on The InSneider that Sam Raimi, Stephen King, and Final Destination Bloodlines directors Adam B. Stein and Zach Lipovsky are coming together for the film.
Sam Raimi will produce the upcoming Desperation movie, while Stein and Lipovsky are on board to direct. Searchlight Pictures is the studio attached to the feature film project.
Published in 1996, Stephen King’s novel Desperation was previously turned into a made-for-TV movie starring Ron Perlman, Tom Skerritt and Steven Weber back in 2006.
Wikipedia reminds, “Desperation is a story about several people who, while traveling along the desolated Highway 50 in Nevada, get abducted by Collie Entragian, the deputy of the fictional mining town of Desperation. Entragian uses various pretexts for the abductions, from an arrest for drug possession to ‘rescuing’ a family from a nonexistent gunman. It becomes clear to the captives that Entragian has been possessed by an evil being named Tak, who has control over the surrounding desert wildlife and must change hosts to keep itself alive.
“They begin to fight for their freedom, sanity and lives before realizing that if they are ever to escape Desperation, they must trap Tak in the place from which he came.”
Desperation was published at the same time as Stephen King’s own “mirror novel” titled The Regulators, which shares characters but takes place in an alternate universe.
The union of Sam Raimi and Stephen King is an exciting one for fans of both Raimi and King, and there’s a nice bit of full circle history there too. As you may recall, it was Stephen King’s review of The Evil Dead that Raimi credits for saving and legitimizing his indie debut feature.
And the rest is history! Stay tuned for more on this developing story.
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