The Weinstein Company has reportedly hired Thomas Jane to play a dead cop. Seriously. According to Variety, the brothers have agreed to produce Evilseek, a screenplay by Wayne Kramer (who will also direct) about a cop who is "so demoralized by the handiwork of a serial killer that he commits suicide," and Jane is already attached. Doesn't really sound like much a role so far, right? I mean, Kevin Costner got cut out of The Big Chill when he tried to play a corpse, and Weekend at Bernie's didn't exactly lead to a dramatic upswing in Terry Kiser's career. But there's a very weird little wrinkle in this story that means Jane won't have to just lie around, looking dead: for some reason, Satan himself takes control of his corpse, and proceeds to use him to solve the crime (with the help, because this is Hollywood, of "a promiscuous 15-year-old daughter, [and] a lesbian partner").

While I'm completely mystified as to why the devil would get all bothered about stopping a serial killer (perhaps I'm unclear on the concept of Evil), I'm totally intrigued - particularly if Dead Devil Jane has special powers and/or glowing eyes.

[via Dark Horizons]