We Have a Ghost: Anthony Mackie, David Harbour lead Christopher Landon film

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Yesterday, we shared the news that Happy Death Day / Freaky director Christopher Landon is now in production on a film called We Have a Ghost, based on author Geoff Manaugh's "socially mediated ghost story" Ernest, which was published on Vice.com in October of 2017. (You can still read it on Vice at THIS LINK.) All we had to go on at that time was a picture Landon posted of a clapperboard on the first day of filming, so thankfully The Hollywood Reporter has revealed more details on We Have a Ghost – including the fact that the film stars Anthony Mackie (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) and David Harbour (Stranger Things)!

Also in the cast are Tig Notaro (Army of the Dead), Jennifer Coolidge (American Pie), Jahi Di'Allo Winston (Charm City Kings), Erica Ash (Legacies), Isabella Russo (HBO's Crashing), Niles Fitch (This Is Us), Faith Ford (Murphy Brown), and Steve Coulter (The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It).

We Have a Ghost is set up at Netflix, and the streamer released the following synopsis: 

Kevin and his family find a ghost named Ernest haunting their new home and get turned into overnight social media sensations. But when Kevin and Ernest go rogue to investigate the mystery of Ernest’s past, they become a target of the CIA.

Manaugh's short story begins 

with Jimmy Kimmel asking his TV audience if it wants to see a real ghost. That would be Ernest, so named by the homeowner who discovered him because the apparition looks a bit like Ernest Borgnine. The homeowner, Frank, begins filming his housebound ghost, and sending out the results to the world through social media. The spirit is mostly harmless, confused by his exploitation, but Ernest becomes a global viral sensation.

He conscripts high school senior Kevin to be part of a series of dinner parties held in the house to cash in on the ghost. This takes a sketchy turn when the teen, and the ghost, turn up missing, endangering Frank’s plans to monetize.

We Have a Ghost is being produced by Dan Halsted, along with Marty Bowen and Isaac Klausner of Temple Hill. Manaugh and Landon serve as executive producers alongside John Fischer, Korey Budd, and Nathan Miller.