Disney and Infinitum Nihil have landed two very different projects that could both potentially star the latter’s Johnny Depp. Deadline reports that development has begun on both a feature version of The Night Stalker and a biopic about Paul Revere’s historic midnight ride.
The Night Stalker originally aired as a TV movie in 1972 and featured Darren McGavin as a Carl Kolchak, a reporter who, while tracking down a serial killer, finds that he’s really going toe-to-toe with a vampire. A sequel, The Night Strangler, aired in 1973 with a television series “Kolchak: The Night Stalker” airing the following year. While the “Night Stalker” of the title referred to the Vampire, the term became associated with protagonist instead. Coincidentally, the same is true of another upcoming Depp project, Rob Marshall’s take on The Thin Man.
There are no writers currently attached to The Night Stalker feature, but that is expected to change in the very near future.
The untitled Paul Revere film, meanwhile, is drafted by the husband and wife team of Lee and Janet Scott Batchler, best known for their work on Batman & Robin.
There is not currently an announced calendar for either project and Depp’s involvement in both is only currently assured as a producer. He can next be seen in the Hunter S. Thompson adaptation, The Rum Diary and, next year, in Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows.
(Photo Credit: WENN.com)
