As if the news earlier this week that the Cronenberg film Videodrome was being remade wasn’t weird enough, Universal has managed to top that.
The studio had decided to remake Drop Dead Fred, as a starring vehicle for Russell Brand.
Dennis McNicholas, one of the writers of the upcoming Land of the Lost, will write the script.
The original 1991 off beat comedy starred Phoebe Cates as a wallflower who loses her job and husband during the course of a lunch hour. Forced to live back home, she’s reunited with her childhood imaginary friend (played by British actor Rik Mayall), who promises to help, but instead causes more havoc.
The first Fred was critically panned and commercially unsuccessful. But it did eventually achieve a certain cult status.
The new take for the Fred remake is to make a film more in the tone of Beetlejuice, building a universe around the concept of imaginary friends. Brand would play the trouble-making pal.
Brand seems to making Universal his American home. The comedian and former BBC host made his U.S. screen debut with the studio’s Forgetting Sarah Marshall and is rehearsing for the Judd Apatow-produced Get Him to the Greek, which shoots in May.
Brand also appeared in Disney’s Bedtime Stories and is attached to star in Warner Bros.’ remake of Arthur.
source: Hollywood Reporter
