Screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin has signed up to pen an English language reworking of Akihiko Shiota's 2003 hit Yomigaeri for DreamWorks, which is currently going by the working title Rainbow Bridge.
Rubin, of course, is best know for his Oscar-winning screenplay for **Ghost **which yanked our heart strings and helped Whoopi Goldberg to an Oscar. This, along with his Jacob's Ladder script, more than qualifies him as something of a specialist in all things spectral and haunt-y, which is especially handy, because **Yomigaeri **is about a Japanese town haunted by spectres. We're saying it's not a coincidence.
**Yomigaeri **- or 'Resurrection' in English - is a lot closer in spirit (geddit?) to Field Of Dreams or Cocoon than The Ring, though. The central character is a government official who is sent back to his hometown to investigate the mysterious reappearance, in non-zombie form, of people who've been dead for years.
It's pretty meta stuff, full of love and longing, and looks tailor made for the man who gave us that Moore/Swayze supernatural nookie (and some pretty ropey pottery).
Rubin, who has already written a treatment for Rainbow Bridge, most recently adapted Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife, which has been doing brisk business in the US since opening last week.