Johnny Depp and Edgar Wright Eye Neil Gaiman Adaptation

Johnny Depp is in talks to headline an Edgar Wright-helmed adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Fortunately, the Milk

An interesting trio of talent is coming together today as Variety reports that negotiations are underway for a big screen adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Fortunately, the Milk. The children’s novel, first published in 2013, was once described by Neil Gaiman as being “the silliest book I have ever written.”  Per the trade, 20th Century Fox will develop the film adaptation with none other than Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, The World’s End) at the helm! What’s more, Wright is likely to be joined by fellow silliness connoisseur Johnny Depp. Depp would headline Fortunately, the Milk, presumably as the book’s father character.

Fortunately, the Milk, which boasts illustrations by Skottie Young, is told from the point of a view of a young boy and his sister, who listen as their father recounts the story of exactly what happened when he stepped out briefly to purchase some milk. That story includes aliens, pirates, piranhas and, of course, time travel.

This isn’t the first project on which Wright and Depp have sought to collaborate. It was rumored back in 2012 that the pair would be working together on Walt Disney Pictures’ big screen take on The Night Stalker. The original The Night Stalker aired as a TV movie in 1972 and featured Darren McGavin as Carl Kolchak, a reporter who, while tracking down a serial killer, finds that he’s really going toe-to-toe with a vampire. A TV movie sequel followed, as did a full series which, according to Chris Carter, was a chief influence on his own hit show, The X-Files. The current state of the new Night Stalker project is unknown, as Wright is hard at work on his latest, the musical actioner Baby Driver.

Neil Gaiman, meanwhile, has quite a few of his works getting adapted in a variety of formats. John Cameron Mitchell is now in production on a big screen adaptation of Gaiman’s short story, How to Talk to Girls at Parties. Ron Howard is, meanwhile, tentatively attached to bring The Graveyard Book to the big screen while Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Sandman — adapting Neil Gaiman’s masterful Vertigo comic book series — is in the works at Warner Bros. Starz, then, is gearing up to deliver Neil Gaiman’s acclaimed novel American Gods as a television series with Hannibal‘s Bryan Fuller serving as show runner alongside The River‘s Michael Green. 

(Photo Credit: Lia Toby / WENN.com)

Movie News

Marvel and DC

X