A few years ago, Edgar Wright was looking to team with Johnny Depp in The Night Stalker, a redo of the series that aired in the mid-1970s, which focused on supernatural cases including a mix of zombies, vampires, werewolves and aliens. With no update on that project for some time, it was looking the two wouldn’t find a chance to collaborate, but that won’t be the case.
THR is reporting that the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World director has been attached to Fortunately, the Milk, an adaptation of the Neil Gaiman story by Flight of the Conchords‘ Bret McKenzie. Set up over at 20th Century Fox, Depp plans to lead and produce the project, which will be a mix of live-action and animation, the latter process headed up by Animal Logic Entertainment, the talented group behind The Lego Movie.
As for the story, it centers on a father, presumably played by Depp, who ventures out to retrieve some milk and gets caught up on tales of aliens, space-time travel, pirates and more. With a streak of misses for Depp — even his latest, Black Mass, greatly disappointed — this could certainly mark a turning point with Wright at the helm. However, the director is busy for the next few years working on Baby Driver, so we’ll have to wait some time for this one.
In the meantime, check out the Amazon synopsis below, along with a book trailer, and a discussion with Gaiman.
A little boy and his little sister awake one morning, milkless. Their mother is away on business, their father is buried in the paper, and their Toastios are dry. What are young siblings to do? They impress upon their father that his tea is also without milk and sit back to watch their plan take effect. But something goes amiss, and their father doesn’t return and doesn’t return some more. When he does, finally, he has a story to tell, a story involving aliens; pirates; ponies; wumpires (not the handsome, brooding kind); and a stegosaurus professor who pilots a Floaty-Ball-Person-Carrier (which looks suspiciously like a hot-air balloon). There is time travel, treachery, and ample adventure, and, fortunately, the milk he has procured is rescued at every turn. Gaiman’s oversize, tongue-in-cheek narrative twists about like the impromptu nonsense it is, with quick turns, speed bumps, and one go-for-broke dairy deus ex machina. Young fills the pages with sketchy, highly stylized images, stretched and pointy, bringing the crazed imaginations to life with irrepressible energy. Children will devour this one, with or without milk.