Barry Sonnenfeld is back back back, people, with the news that he’s signed on to direct spy comedy-thriller, The Spellman Files, for Paramount Pictures.
The movie, based on a book by Lisa Lutz, revolves around a female private eye who struggles to balance her love life with her job.
Doesn’t exactly sound like scintillating material, but we’re always glad to see Sonnenfeld back behind the camera. Few directors have fallen from grace quite as dramatically as the impish Sonnenfeld, whose films are almost always shot through with a dark sense of humour and a signature visual style and are, for the most part, around ninety minutes long.
Since the disappointing Men In Black II in 2002, Sonnenfeld has barely been able to get arrested, directing only the execrable RV for the big screen.
However, since he switched agencies recently, he’s become attached to a number of projects, including Dan Mintner: Badass For Hire over at New Line, and How To Guide at MGM. The Spellman Files would seem to have jumped to the front of the queue – let’s hope that it will signal a return to the Sonnenfeld behind The Addams Family, Men In Black and the wonderful, if short-lived TV show, The Tick.
Laura Ziskin will produce; Bobby Florsheim and Josh Stolberg wrote the script.