Edgar Wright, director of “Shaun of the Dead” and “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” is coming to Disney. According to Deadline Hollywood, Wright will helm the studio’s upcoming feature reboot of “The Night Stalker,” the ABC movie-of-the-week that launched a groundbreaking TV series.
Wright comes aboard before the project has a script, which he will presumably help develop. The project does have an executive producer and presumable star in Johnny Depp, who is expected to take on the role of journalist Carl Kolchak, originally played by Darren McGavin. Kolchak was an eccentric, iconoclastic investigative reporter whose stories always had a supernatural or science fiction menace at their heart.
TV veteran John Llewellyn Moxey, helmed "The Night Stalker" from a script by horror, science fiction and fantasy great Richard Matheson. Perhaps not coincidentally, "The Night Stalker" was produced by Dan Curtis, creator of "Dark Shadows," which is also currently being remade as a feature film with Johnny Depp.
Depp reportedly has fond memories of the original ABC movie-of-the-week, "The Night Stalker," which aired back in 1972, in which Kolchak investigated a series of vampire-like murders in Las Vegas that turn out to be committed by an actual vampire. "The Night Stalker" garnered excellent ratings, leading to a sequel, "The Night Strangler." That led to a series, which was in many ways a precursor to "The X-Files."
Watch the intro to the series by clicking the lower box on the left.
It is expected that “The Night Stalker” will be produced with an eye towards a PG-13 rating, in keeping with the Disney family film mandate. Depp has an ongoing relationship with Disney encompassing four “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies, and the upcoming reboot of “The Lone Ranger,” going into production virtually as we speak.
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