Universal is remaking Drop Dead Fred. Let me repeat that. Universal is remaking Drop Dead Fred. Perhaps you vaguely recall the 1991 original, which “starred Phoebe Cates as a wallflower who loses her job and husband during the course of a lunch hour. Forced to live back home, she's reunited with her childhood imaginary friend (Brit actor Rik Mayall), who promises to help but causes more havoc.” The new version will star Russell Brand as the imaginary friend and will be written by “Dennis McNicholas, one of the writers of Universal's upcoming Land of the Lost,” per The Hollywood Reporter. Of course it will.

The Universal remake train isn’t stopping there, however. They’re also planning a new version of Videodrome. “The new picture will modernize the concept, infuse it with the possibilities of nano-technology and blow it up into a large-scale sci-fi action thriller.” And you might be surprised to learn that David Cronenberg “has no role in the film as yet.” Or you might not.

If that doesn’t do it for you, how about a spiffy new screen version of Humpty Dumpty. “The 3-D sci-fi horror pic is about a half-human, half-alien creature who embarks on a murderous rampage after his alien mother is abused by two rednecks in the Deep South,” Variety reports. Oh…that Humpty Dumpty?

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