Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead) is set to direct a movie remake of the cult 1970’s telemovie and TV series The Night Stalker. Disney Pictures is developing the film as a potential star vehicle for Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean, Alice in Wonderland), who will be producing with his Infinitum Nihil partner Christi Dembrowski.
Wright has jumped on board before the studio has hired a writer and will develop the project with Depp and Dembrowski. The original series of The Night Stalker followed a tabloid reporter called Carl Kolchak who investigated mysterious crimes with a sci-fi angle that were usually committed by zombies, vampires, werewolves and other supernatural creatures.
Wright is also attached to co-write and direct an Ant-Man movie for the Disney-owned Marvel Studios, and – as Nick Frost told us at the BAFTAs earlier this month – he has also completed an early draft of the third installment of the ‘Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy’ with Simon Pegg (Star Trek, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol), which is thought to be entitled The World’s End. Meanwhile Depp will be collaborating once again with Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street) for the upcoming film Dark Shadows, which is released in the U.K. on May 11th.