Hammer Films does Jack the Ripper flick Gaslight

February 8th 2012, 5:02pm

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Hammer Films is back in full force, fresh from its box office success with THE WOMAN IN BLACK last weekend. The Daniel Radcliffe vehicle took in a massive $21 million at the box office, ensuring that the revived British studio will be pushing on with bigger productions.

Today they announced that they’ve acquired the rights to GASLIGHT, a screenplay by Ian Fried (THE EVER AFTER MURDERS). The film made the 2011 Black List and was described as FROM HELL meets SILENCE OF THE LAMBS… because it has Jack the Ripper helping the cops. Not sure how that makes any sense whatsoever, because barring the fact that the Ripper murders are some of of the greatest unsolved crimes in history, “Jack” used to taunt the police with messages. But in this world, he’s been caught.

Secretly imprisoned in a London insane asylum, the infamous Jack the Ripper helps Scotland Yard investigators solve a series of grisly murders whose victims all share one thing in common: dual puncture wounds to the neck.

So… Jack the Ripper vs Vampires?

Fried is on a helluva role now, having sold two big scripts already for the “dark GHOSTBUSTERS film” SPECTRAL and THE EVER AFTER MURDERS. More on GASLIGHT as we hear it.