Peculiar news, this. According to Variety, the documentary filmmaker James Moll (he made the holocaust-themed The Last Days) has acquired film rights to Knott's Berry Farm's Calico **Ghost Town, a theme park in California. The rides and all the on-site characters come with the deal.
Now, you'd think that perhaps Moll might be interested from a documentarist's perspective. Something on the slow decline of the gold-rush mining town, where in the good old days they danced and sang and the music played, but now all the clubs have been closed down, and bands won't play no more because there's too much fighting on the dance floor.
But no. "It's the perfect setting for a big, spooky, family adventure with all the elements of a classic Western: cowboys, showgirls, gunfights, chases through creepy mines... all with a supernatural twist, " says Moll.
So The Goonies then. Crossed with the Sam Eliot flashback bits from Ghost Rider. Which is, coincidentally, the name of the tallest wooden rollercoaster in the world which is the park's biggest attraction.
Moll will produce, and the project will go out to writers and potential directors later in the summer.