Edgar Wright to Direct Johnny Depp in ‘The Night Stalker’ Redux?
director Edgar Wright (on the left ... I think)
First DARK SHADOWS and now THE NIGHT STALKER?? I’m game!! According to deadline.com, Disney is setting up Edgar Wright (director of SHAUN OF THE DEAD) to helm a film remake of the TV movie/series, THE NIGHT STALKER. Disney is developing the film as a potential vehicle for Johnny Depp who will play Carl Kolchak, a tabloid reporter who always seems to be up to his nipples in supernatural troubles. Depp and his Infinitum Nihil partner Christi Dembrowski will produce.
No writer has been hired yet but Wright will oversee and shape the project with Depp and Dembrowski from the ground floor. Why THE NIGHT STALKER, you may ask? Well if you asked that then you obviously have never seen this TV show!!
[The project] took root at the studio last summer, borne out of Depp and Dembrowski’s fond memories of the original 70s movie and series that starred Darren McGavin. He covered crime for a tabloid and his cases always led to supernatural perpetrators that included zombies, vampires, werewolves and aliens. Of course, neither his editor nor anyone else would believe him or allow him to run what seemed like outrageous stories. But Kolchak would put himself in grave danger each episode.
This project sounds like a winner. With a great director and Depp’s talent at being able to craft really unique and memorable characters, this is one I’ll be keeping my eyes on!!
Do you remember the original THE NIGHT STALKER show?
Stay Bloody!!!
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Johnny Depp-please quit shitting on everyone else’s really good work–Willy Wonka, Dark Shadows, Sleepy Hollow. Puh-Lease. And Tim Burton–please just do art. Do not do movies.
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Depp is a great actor; Burton is a phenomenal director. They just need to stop trying to impress Hollywood and just ‘do they thing’!!
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No, no, no, no, no, please Cthulhu, no…
THE NIGHT STALKER was my favourite show, maybe more than the original STAR TREK. It was *my* show, the show that no one else I knew watched. The hero wasn’t handsome or rugged or even overtly heroic, except in as much as he had a tenacity towards finding the truth (you don’t get a pretty boy like Depp to play Kolchak, you get someone who looks like they’ve actually had to work for a living, someone like William H Macy or Ronny Cox, John C Reilly or Lance Henriksen). The dialogue was suitably old-fashioned (do any kids ever want to be a reporter for the press today? Do they even know that there are such things as newspapers that aren’t celebrity-oriented?), the humour was low-key and dark and cynical (the TV reboot of a couple of years ago took itself way too seriously). If something like this is being done by *Disney*, it’ll become a roller-coaster ride. That doesn’t mean it’ll be a bad movie,just that it won’t bear little resemblance to the show I know.
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I’m with ya Deggsy … THE NIGHT STALKER was one of my favorite TV shows that blended camp, horror, and badassness (yes, that’s both a word and a state of being) beautifully. I like the choice of director but I’m very hesitant for Depp to be in the lead role. We’ll see.
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