The Night Stalker (Johnny Depp to star)

[detective392]

Johnny Depp Meets The Night Stalker

This could very well be Johnny Depp's version of a mid-life crisis: portraying all of his childhood favorite characters on the big screen. It's starting with the currently shooting Dark Shadows, in which he'll play vampire Barnabas Collins; will continue with him as Tonto in The Lone Ranger and now comes word he'll play reporter Carl Kolchak in The Night Stalker.

Writes Deadline in an exclusive report, "Depp had fond memories of the ABC telepic and series The Night Stalker, and got Disney's Rich Ross and Sean Bailey sparked on a pitch for Depp to potentially play tabloid reporter Carl Kolchak. Originated by Darren McGavin, Kolchak was the dogged journalist first seen in the 1972 telepic (where he hunted a killer who was draining the blood of beautiful girls on the Las Vegas strip) and later in the ABC series Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Kolchak's investigations always seemed to lead him to the doorstep of vampires, zombies, werewolves and aliens. For its time, it was pretty scary stuff. The studio will go out to writers shortly. David Kennedy will be exec producer."

Deadline failed to mention that there was a 1973 TV movie called The Night Strangler (co-starring Richard Dean Anderson as the creature, soon to be cast as Oscar Goldman in The Six Million Dollar Man). There was also a teleplay for a third TV movie called The Night Killers, about robot duplicates being put in the place of people in crucial power positions. Additionally, in 2005 X-Files producer Frank Spotnitz served as the guiding force behind a revamped version of the show, there have been a number of novels and a wide variety of comic book adventures as well.

The two TV movies were directed by Dark Shadows creator Dan Curtis and written by legendary writer Richard Matheson. The '70s TV series was guided by David Chase, who would go on to create The Sopranos.

Would love for this to happen as we don't have many supernatural detective movies and was a fan of the original and reboot series. While many will hate the idea of Johnny starring I'm excited and think he would be good in the role.

http://comicbookmovie.com/fansites/v.../news/?a=41508

[WyldeMan45]

Oh wow, when I read that title I thought they meant Depp was going to play Richard Ramirez the Night Stalker, lol, now that is a Depp movie I could get excited for! But alas no risks again...........

[bainbridge's_stache]

Edgar Wright set to direct

Disney is setting Edgar Wright to direct The Night Stalker, the remake of the ABC telepic and series that the studio is developing as a potential star vehicle for Johnny Depp to play intrepid tabloid reporter Carl Kolchak. Depp and his Infinitum Nihil partner Christi Dembrowski will produce.

Wright, best known for directing Shaun of the Dead and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, comes aboard before the studio has set a writer, and he will oversee and shape the project with Depp and Dembrowski from the ground floor. As Deadline revealed, the film 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. David Kennedy will be exec producer of the film.

The subject matter will be tailored to fit Disney’s family film mandate and likely a PG-13 rating, but the idea of Wright’s hyper-reality style and Depp’s gift for constructing quirky characters sounds like a good match. Wright is also attached to direct Ant-Man for Marvel Studios and Disney.

Source

[Atreyu]

Well maybe it could work. I was thinking PG-13, you gotta be kidding, but hey the TV show wasn't that harsh, so we'll see what Depp and Company do with it.
Maybe this will make Universal put the original series on blu. Hahah I know a dream, but not a bad one though.

[EricJ]

Edgar Wright, I'd trust with the original series.
(The appeal of the series wasn't just the Exorcist-70's monsters, but that Darren McGavin is your go-to guy if you want to play old-fashioned wisecracking "Scoop Tracy" reporters out of a 30's B-movie.)

Just so long as he doesn't listen to his "Is it more Shaun of the Dead?" fanboys and end up turning the characters into Brit-slackers. If only we had that Ant-Man movie by now, to judge how good Wright is at non-parody pop-culture.

I'd certainly trust his take a lot more than that misbegotten short-lived 00's ABC TV revival that said "Well, they said X-Files was sorta like Night Stalker; let's make a Night Stalker that's sorta like X-Files!"
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[vegeta88]

Seems like a very odd combination, but I am into it. I like everything I have seen Edgar Wright do and Johnny Depp, 'huff said.

I wonder if it will be similar in style to Wright's other films.

[csdot]

sucks Ant-Man still doesnt appear to be happening any time soon, but this sounds cool. Depp is a good actor he just doesnt make many movies that interest me. not recently anyway. it being directed by Wright certainly interests me though.

[EricJ]

Yeah, but ten bucks says everyone thinks "Cool, Johnny Depp is in it, does that mean Tim Burton's directing?"
And then all the studios think he must be, so at the first hint of studio tweak, we end up with...Tim Burton directing. That's usually how it happens.

[Foggy]

Originally Posted by bainbridge's_stache

Edgar Wright set to direct

Source

Can't believe I nearly shrugged this film off, Edgar Wright's involvement has instantly launched this to "Get this made... NOW!!!"

[Walts Ghost]

I did not care about this movie at all until Wright signed on to direct. I want this to be out already now!

[JeffTheMovieGuy]

Originally Posted by WyldeMan45

Oh wow, when I read that title I thought they meant Depp was going to play Richard Ramirez the Night Stalker, lol, now that is a Depp movie I could get excited for! But alas no risks again...........

That should be a David Fincher directed film.