Screenwriter Ian Fried hasn’t had the best luck when it comes to selling scripts. Over the last two years, both of his screenplays, The Ever After Murders and Gaslight, were featured on the Black List — or, a list of the best unproduced screenplays. Thanks to Exclusive Media’s genre arm, Hammer, however, things are looking up.
According to THR, the studio has picked up the rights to Gaslight, a period thriller that puts a spin on the legend of Jack the Ripper. The deal is the second one for Fried this year, along with the supernatural action film Spectral he’s currently working on with Legendary.
Said to be similar to The Silence of the Lambs and Alan Moore’s From Hell, Gaslight follows Jack the Ripper as he’s released from his secret imprisonment in a London insane asylum to aid Scotland Yard in solving a series of murders. The acquisition seems like a natural choice for Hammer, who recently saw both critical and financial success with another Victorian-era creeper, The Woman in Black, which grossed over $21 million last weekend.
Exclusive’s Guy East and Nigel Sinclair, as well as Hammer CEO Simon Oakes, will serve as executive producers on the project. No word yet on casting or choices for a director, but considering the story’s subject matter, any development should prove interesting.
Do you think Gaslight, along with The Woman in Black, could signal a new trend in horror films?