Legendary’s Latest Acquisition, ‘Spectral,’ Is Like A Gritty ‘Ghostbusters’
As the script forGhostbusters3 gathers dust on Bill Murray’s desk, another writer is taking the idea and running in a whole other direction.Legendary Pictures, the company who is producingThe Dark Knight Rises, Man of SteelandPacific Rim, has just purchased a project by writerIan FriedcalledSpectral. The idea of the film is described as a more realistic, gritty and action-packedGhostbustersas a group of special ops soldiers are specially trained to battle and capture evil ghosts in Manhattan. One word comes to mind: awesome. Read more after the jump.
The Hollywood Reporterbroke the news of this deal which reportedly sold for six figures. They describeSpectralas follows:
That last bit is interesting. It’s almost as if Legendary knows Fried’s idea is a little too close toGhostbustersand that a change of scenery might help to distinguish the film more. According to the article, Fried pitched his idea by editing together a sizzle reel of other films to give an idea of whatSpectralwould look like. There’s no mention of what those films are but, from the description, I’m personally picturing James Cameron’sAliensin the streets and hunting ghosts. A boy can dream.
Fried is one of a growing number of young screenwriters who hasn’t had one of his movies made yet, but seems to have a distinct voice and really cool ideas.The Hollywood Reportersays he’s written two scripts,The Ever After MurdersandGaslight, both of which are well-liked and imagine famous characters in murder mysteries. The former wason the 2010 Black List.
What do you think ofSpectral?
