Paramount Vantage has acquired A.N. Wilson’s novel A Jealous Ghost for Kirsten Dunst to star in and produce, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Film 360, Management 360’s feature film label, also is on board to produce the supernatural thriller, which is being adapted by Virginia-based scribe Megan Holley. Read on for the details.
360’s Ben Forkner discovered the 2005 book while on a trip to London last year. He immediately thought of Dunst, who had said she was interested in finding a dark, elevated psychological thriller in the vein of “The Shining” and Roman Polanski’s “Repulsion.” Dunst has not appeared in a dark supernatural thriller since 1994’s “Interview With the Vampire,” the movie that launched her to stardom.
Dunst, Forkner and her manager, 360’s Eric Kranzler, developed a take with Holley before bringing the project to Paramount Vantage.
Holley’s take detours from the book, which is written in third-person omniscient, dropping certain elements while creating new characters and story points. The take sees Dunst playing a young woman studying in London who, upon beginning a relationship with one of her professors, starts seeing demons.
Producing for 360 are Kranzler, Forkner and Daniel Rappaport.
Chad Hamilton and Geoff Stier bought the project into Vantage. Hamilton will oversee for the studio.
Holley, repped by ICM, wrote “Sunshine Cleaning,” about two sisters who start a company that cleans up crime scenes. Amy Adams and Emily Blunt are starring, with Christine Jeffs directing.
Dunst, onscreen in “Marie Antoinette,” is repped by WMA and Management 360.
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