With **Bedtime Stories **belying an average opening weekend and going on to hit the $100 million mark any… day… now, Disney is clearly in a supernatural comedy frame of mind.
For the studio has just snapped up the rights to an untitled supernatural comedy pitch from writers Ron Burch and David Kidd, whch they hope to turn into a tentpole picture, perhaps with a major star attached.
The movie doesn’t have a title right now, but we’re assured that it does have a premise, but Disney is keeping schtum on the matter for now. Yet they thought enough of it to give Burch and Kidd a deal worth $500,000 against one million dollars, whatever the hell that means.
And, frankly, the writing team that brought us Yours, Mine And Ours deserve it. Burch and Kidd developed the pitch with Matt Lopez, currently Disney’s go-to guy for supernatural comedies. He wrote Bedtime Stories, and has worked on both Race To Witch Mountain and the forthcoming Nic Cage vehicle, The Sorceror’s Apprentice. Frankly, Lopez is so hot right now that if he pitched a movie where a ghost shits into a bucket for two hours, he’d probably get a green light.
Lopez will be an executive producer on the movie, which will be produced, like Bedtime Stories, by Adam Shankman and Jennifer Gibgot through their Offspring Entertainment company. Shankman probably won’t direct this, though – he’s busy working on other projects, including Sinbad, Hairspray 2 and Bye Bye Birdie.
We'll keep you posted on this one. Now, if you'll excuse us, we're off to pitch Rentaghost The Movie... easy money in these credit crunching times!