Johnny Depp will bring a big screen version of the 1970s TV series Kolchak:The Night Stalker to reality through his partnership with Disney. The Night Stalker began as a 1972 ABC TV "Movie of the Week" and garnered legendary ratings that led to the concept being expanded to a weekly TV series. Darren McGavin starred as a newspaper reporter on a one man crusade to expunge modern day vampires from society. The show has spawned a loyal following that continues to this day. In today's Twilight-fueled pop culture, vampires are all the rage and the Night Stalker project looks liek a sure winner.
In a startlingly different project, Depp will play American colonial patriot Paul Revere, whose legendary ride through the night to warn settlers that "The British are coming!" earned him a "revered" place in U.S. history books. The Revere project has picked up steam from an unexpected development that thrust the patriot back into the headlines. This occurred last month when former Governor Sarah Palin misstated the facts regarding Revere by saying he was riding to warn the British that the Americans would not allow them to take their guns. After being debunked by historians on both the political left and right, some of Palin's supporters temporarily changed Revere's entry on Wikipedia in an attempt to make it appear her statement was correct. From such bizarre scenarios, major motion pictures are given the green light. The Revere controversy caused countless people to re-examine his life and, presumably, made him "box-office" again for the first time in decades. I'm personally pulling for a controversy about George Washington, whose incredible life story has never been properly made into a feature film, though a 1980s TV mini series was highly acclaimed. Is it asking too much for some politician out there to screw up the facts about him so we can get the Father of Our Country back on the big screen? For more click here- Lee Pfeiffer
