Johnny Depp is The Night Stalker For Edgar Wright!

Edgar Wright will direct The Night Stalker, Disney's remake of the 70's ABC supernatural telefilm and series that is being developed as a big screen starring vehicle for Johnny Depp. Depp has long loved the show and its lead character Carl Kolchak (played by Darren McGavin), a fearless tabloid reporter whose cases usually dealt with the supernatural.... whether it be werewolves, zombies, aliens, vampires, or anything else you might have found in Famous Monsters of Filmland. Though no matter how many monstrous creatures he ran into, nobody ever believed him and his editor would never let him run the outrageous stories he would make claim too. Yet he would keep risking his life time and time again to get to the truth. The Night Stalker was a huge inspiration for The X-Files and although Depp isn't committed to making the film, you can bet he wants too. He setup the project last summer at Disney and at his production company Infinitum Nihil and just like his next starring vehicle Dark Shadows that opens in May at Warner Bros, it is based on a property he watched and love during childhood. These are the personal projects Depp just loves to make and he has wisely attracted such a creative helmer to bring the story to life rather than going with Tim Burton again, whose creative juices ran out of gas years ago. It is also very much a Depp sounding project, a cross between The Rum Diary and Sleepy Hollow in some ways. Wright, who made the modern comedy greats Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz before giving into his own artistic excessiveness with Scott Pilgrim vs. The World that resulted in a flop, is obviously wise to attach himself to a movie being developed by one of the biggest stars on the planet. Depp's name on the film will give Wright the kind of creative license and the opportunity for genre flourishes that he probably couldn't be afforded at other studios after the Pilgrim disappointment at Universal. Disney are obviously always in the Johnny Depp game and see this as huge potential PG-13 family friendly franchise starter but with Depp's schedule packed, this one probably will be on the back burner until 2014 for both guys. Wright has been busy the last 18 months developing the screenplays for The World's End (the final of his Blood & Ice Cream trilogy with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost) and his Ant-Man superhero project at Marvel that he hopes to also direct. I would expect one of them or something else to fill his directing time later this year before The Night Stalker, which looks to be a major Disney tentpole, gets underway maybe in 2014. Sounds like a fun project though and let's hope it does happen. source - deadline