TriStar Pictures has come out the winner in a “competitive situation” involving the rights to turn writer/director Michiel Blanchart’s French short film You’re Dead Helene (a.k.a. T’es morte Hélène) into an English-language feature, and Deadline reports that the project is now moving forward with genre icon Sam Raimi producing!
Blanchart will be directing the feature expansion of his short, with Raimi producing the supernatural romantic comedy alongside Rob Tapert, through their company Ghost House. Michaël Goldberg and Boris Van Gils of Playbox Pictures will also be producing, with Caellum Allan overseeing the project for TriStar and Romel Adam overseeing for Ghost House.
With a running time of 25 minutes, the short version of You’re Dead Helene told the following story:
Maxime lives with the ghost of his girlfriend Hélène. Wishing to put an end to this frankly unbearable situation, Maxime finally decides to break up with her. Hélène doesn’t seem ready to accept this decision.
Raimi had this to say about the short:
The film is touching and terrifying. Michiel is one of the few modern directors that can balance humor and terror, and he does it in an exciting new way.”
The set-up for You’re Dead Helene sounds kind of familiar (it reminds me of the recent zombie movies Life After Beth and Burying the Ex), but what matters is how Blanchart will bring it to the screen. I’m on board to check out a horror comedy about a guy trying to break up with a ghost… and even if the story didn’t interest me, I’d still watch this movie just because Sam Raimi is involved and I watch everything he puts his name on.
How does You’re Dead Helene sound to you? Have you seen the short film? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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