What is it with Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese’s love of dead things? Not content with writing Zombieland and its developing sequel, the pair has chosen a story revolving around an accidental death for their first stab at directing, making a deal to call the shots on Doc and Howie.
That title might not sound like it has much to do with mortality, but in its past life, the script was known as Doc and Howie Whack a Granny. Written by telly veteran Steve Leff (he has credits on the likes of Two and a Half Men), the plot finds two slackers refusing to help an elderly woman carry her groceries up a flight of stairs. That leads to them accidentally killing her, but while they panic about the repercussions, the incident allows them to meet the dead granny’s sexy granddaughters. As they woo the ladies, they deal with the issue of whether to 'fess up as to just what happened.
Doc and Howie landed on the Black List last year, so it was only a matter of time before someone grabbed it up. And while not every title from the list has resulted in a winner (The Fourth Kind, anyone?), films such as Easy A and Buried have been hatched from entries in the past. While this one sounds more like Harold & Kumar, we’re intrigued to see what Reese and Wernick do as directors.
They’ve also been piling on the script assignments recently, what with tackling Deadpool, the G.I. Joe sequel, selling sci-fi concept Earth vs. Moon and nabbing the rights to comic bookCowboy Ninja Viking.