“Baby Driver” director Edgar Wright is attached to direct, develop and executive produce a ghost story called “Stage 13” from “SNL” writer Simon Rich that Amblin Partners has acquired, the studio announced Wednesday.
The film is based on Rich’s own short story, and he will also adapt the screenplay. It’s the comedic story of a silent film actress who has haunted the soundstage Stage 13 for decades, only to meet a struggling director and team with him to make their mark on the world.
Rich will produce the film with Wright’s producing partner at Complete Fiction Nira Park, as will Working Title’s Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner. Amblin Partners’ president of production Jeb Brody and creative executive John Buderwitz will oversee for the studio.
Wright also recently signed on to another project called “The Chain” that’s an adaptation of a novel by Adrian McKinty. That novel was optioned at Universal and is the story about a mother who discovers her daughter has been kidnapped and must kidnap another child as part of a disturbing chain within the next 24 hours if she wants to keep her own daughter alive.
Wright’s upcoming film “Last Night in Soho” was meant to come out this fall from Focus Features, but it’s been delayed to a theatrical release on April 23, 2021. Wright co-wrote the project that’s a thriller and horror movie with “Penny Dreadful” writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns. The film stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Thomasin McKenzie and Matt Smith.
Rich’s “Stage 13” was first published in a collection of shorts called “Hits and Misses” in 2019, and the collection won the Thurber Prize for American Humor.
Wright is represented by CAA, Independent Talent Group and Nelson Davis LLP. Rich is represented by UTA and Levine Greenberg Talent Agency.
Deadline first reported the news of the project.