Peter Ramsey, who became first Black filmmaker to win the animated-feature Academy Award as co-director of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, is looking to make a jump into live-action with Blood Count, a period vampire thriller just scooped up by Paramount.
Ramsey wrote the script as a spec and will direct the feature project, which is in early development. LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s SpringHill is on board to produce, with James, Jamal Henderson and Spencer Beighley acting as producers.
Details are being kept in the coffin, but it is described as a film noir social thriller set in 1950s L.A. with supernatural elements. Intriguingly, it is also said to be loosely inspired by the life of Ramsey’s father, a jazz musician.
SpringHill is in postproduction on Hustle, a sports comedy starring Adam Sandler, and is in production on a remake of 1990s cult comedy House Party. The banner is also developing an adaptation of New Kid, the graphic novel by Jerry Craft that was banned in Texas last year and that this week hired Prentice Penny as director.
Ramsey made history as the first Black filmmaker to direct a big-budget studio animated feature with DWA’s 2012 movie, Rise of the Guardians. He co-directed Into the Spider-Verse, released in 2018 and hailed as a zenith in comic book moviemaking. He serves as an exec producer on the two back-to-back Spider-Verse sequels and has the live-action/CG hybrid fantasy miniseries Lost Ollie, which he directed and exec produced, coming out later this year from Netflix.
Count is the second live-action project that Ramsey has set up, although it’s unclear which will ultimately serve as his debut. He is also developing Love in Vain, a biopic centering on Blues pioneer Robert Johnson, as a directing vehicle. That one, too, is set up at Paramount and has Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, Mike Menchel and Lionel Richie producing.
Ramsey is represented by Verve and attorney Todd Stern.
Source: Hollywood
