Ready Or Not directors Radio Silence are to pivot from horror to biopic with a film about eccentric radio host, Art Bell. Paul Giamatti is to star.
According to a new report, several studios are vying for the next project from Radio Silence, the horror filmmakers who brought us Ready Or Not, Scream VI and Abigail. The directing duo – individually known as Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett – have so far cut their teeth in the horror genre, but their next feature will instead centre around the life of the late Art Bell. He was a legendary American radio host who would take calls from eccentrics nationwide; every night you’d get odd stories from callers who claimed they were victims of alien abductions, conspiracy theories, supernatural entities or other oddities.
According to the report at World Of Reel, Universal, Amazon, and Warner Bros are all in the race to secure the project which has been scripted by Sam Chalsen and Nelson Greaves, co-writers on the ill-fated Spy Hunter adaptation of the classic 80s videogame. Dwayne Johnson was attached to that project for a while and it even spawned a tie-in videogame, despite never actually materialising as a film.
Read more: Spy Hunter | A cancelled Dwayne Johnson blockbuster (that still got a tie-in videogame)
The real draw in Radio Silence’s biopic is surely the involvement of Paul Giamatti in a role that seems tailor-made for his absorbing brand of manic energy. Giamatti was last seen in Alexander Payne’s charming Hal Ashby-esque comedy drama, The Holdovers. His role as grouchy history teacher Paul Hunham rightly earned him a Best Actor Oscar nomination.
Apart like Art Bell, meanwhile, could let the actor bounce off some strange stories and oddball late night callers, which certainly sounds like a lot of fun to us.
Radio Silence are set to shoot a Ready Or Not sequel next (which they’ve already touted as a ‘banger’ of script) while Giamatti has recently wrapped up a turn on the next Downton Abbey film and a TV remake of Eli Roth’s Hostel. After that, Giamatti will be starring as a ‘strong-willed director’ opposite Julianne Moore in Jesse Eisenberg’s planned (and as yet untitled) musical comedy before potentially moving onto his collaboration with Radio Silence.
We’ll bring you more on this rather exciting project as we hear it.
