Fathom Talks Possible American Gothic

Moviehole tells us they talked to the Craig Marquardo, President of Fathom Motion Picture Company, about rumors that a feature film of cult series American Gothic is in the works.

Good news is...it's definitely on the boards. Not only is a film version being prepped, but the TV series is likely to be resurrected.

"It was my idea. Two years ago I talked to Sean Cassidy about it. Everyone was receptive, but no on had any time to dedicate to it. Obviously the AG fans didn�t go anywhere. And so much of the world never got to see it, that I thought it would be something that could be reintroduced without much trouble," says Marquardo, who's worked on such films as "Die Hard 2" and "End of Days".

"I Will Exec Produce, and the film adaptation was my idea. Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert (original producers of the series) of Renaissance Pictures are also attached to the film. Sean Cassidy, series creator, is not affiliated with the project, and won't be".

Marquardo says Gary Cole is signed to reprise his role as the charming, but literally devilish, Sherrif Lucas Buck.

"The following members of the original cast will reprise their roles: Gary Cole. Jake Weber, Brenda Bakke and Nick Searcy. Paige Turco will not return. Lucas Black and Sarah Paulson will not return due to their significant age change since the series run".

So who�s going to take on the role made famous by Black, that of pint-sized devil spawn, Caleb? According to Marquardo, they've found an unlikely fan of the series in wonder child, Haley Joel Osment. In addition, Fathom is also in talks with "Traffic" writer Stephen Gaghan about writing a screenplay. "It will be based upon elements from the early part of the series," he says.

So is it going to happen? "Right now, the fate of the film rests with Universal. Uni TV owns the rights. Universal Studios is making the decision as we speak. They are the ones who will have to decide whether to greenlight it. Even if they say no, there are other options, one of which is Fathom (my company) buying the rights from Uni and making it ourselves," he says.

In addition, Fathom are also looking at getting a new series of the TV show off the ground. "Sci-Fi Channel wants to continue the series. The subsequent series will be a season one picking up where the movie leaves off. The new series is 'American Gothic: Revisited'. The original series will then be ignored," he says. Marquardo says that they'll be hard lucked to get Haley Joel Osment to do the series too, but the other stars will do both.