Edgar Wright To Direct 'Stage 13', A Movie About A Ghost Who Haunts A Film Studio

Writer/director Edgar Wright is lined up to direct his first ghost story.

Wright, the beloved filmmaker behind movies like Shaun of the Dead and Baby Driver, has signed on to develop, executive produce, and direct a film called Stage 13, an adaptation of one of novelist/screenwriter Simon Rich's recent short stories. But despite the presence of a ghost, this movie won't be a traditional horror film.

Deadline reports that Amblin Partners has hired Wright to direct a Stage 13 movie, and the company has also hired Simon Rich to write the script based on his own short story.

Stage 13 centers on a young, aspiring director who's plucked from obscurity and hired to direct a movie on major film studio's backlot – only to discover that the only reason he was given the chance in the first place is because the sound stage is haunted and the studio head is trying to get rid of the ghost, an aspiring actress who still desperately wants to be a star.Stage 13, which is among the short stories in Rich's 2019 book Hits and Misses, is far more comedic than frightening. At its core, this is essentially an underdog story about an unlikely pair of collaborators who team up to buck the system to try to show the powers-that-be what they can do, and a metaphorical exploration of the insane obstacles any director must overcome in order to make a movie. It seems like a nice return to comedic material for Wright, who has stepped away from comedies in recent years with Baby Driver and the forthcoming Last Night in Soho.

As for Rich, he's primarily a comedy writer. He's formerly one of the youngest writers ever hired to work at Saturday Night Live, he frequently writes for The New Yorker, he worked as a staff writer for Pixar for a little bit, and he eventually created the terrific and underseen FXX comedy Man Seeking Woman, which starred Jay Baruchel, and the TBS comedy Miracle Workers, which stars Daniel Radcliffe, Steve Buscemi, and Geraldine Viswanathan. He's been nominated for five Emmys over the course of his career.

There's no word yet on where this wall fall in Wright's busy schedule, especially given any complications that could arise from the new coronavirus safety protocols. The filmmaker, who just launched a new production company, is currently slated to direct a robot movie called Set My Heart to Five and a kidnapping thriller called The Chain. You can read the full Stage 13 short story here.