Colin Vaines developing ghost story with genre specialist David Pirie

Colin Vaines is working with UK chiller specialist David Pirie on a feature ghost story Vaines described to Screen as a “classic genre piece given a fresh treatment”.

The script, currently in the development stage, is already generating buzz: “David has written a brilliant outline and I’ve got people interested in the development of the piece. We could go into production very quickly at the right price,” Vaines told Screen.

Pirie was nominated for a BAFTA for his 1997 adaptation of Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White and has written episodes of Murderland, Inspector Lewis, Agatha Christie’s Poirot and Murder Rooms. He also worked (uncredited) on the screenplay of Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves.

Vaines, who works between London and LA, is currently pushing his (untitled) rugby biopic of former Wales star Gareth Thomas, one of sport’s most high-profile openly gay athletes. Antony Hoffman will direct Mickey Rourke in the lead role, which the actor has been training for with Coriolanus stunt co-ordinator Nick McKinless. Vaines is hoping for a September shoot.

The former Miramax, TWC and GK Films exec is an exec producer on GK’s remake of British miniseries Unforgiven, which has writer-director Scott Frank attached, and is also executive on Terry Loane’s drama Sisters with Ciaran Hinds attached. Both are at script stage.   

In 2011, the prolific Vaines produced W.E. and Coriolanus and executive produced The Rum Diary and My Week with Marilyn, which is nominated for two Oscars this Sunday.