The return of TOPPER

By: Patrick Sauriol
Date: Tuesday, March 11, 2003
Source: Variety

In the latest move by a Hollywood movie studio to remake a classic movie, Walt Disney Pictures has picked up the rights to remake the 1937 movie TOPPER with an eye for Steve Martin to play the Cary Grant role.

In the original TOPPER, Grant played George Kirby who together with his deceased wife Marion, haunt a friend of theirs in the hopes he'll live a little more and work less. Things go unexpectedly nuts when the Kirbys' pal, a bank president named Cosmo Topper, starts changing his ways but also complicates matters between the ghostly husband and wife. The film spawned two sequels and was also remade as a 1979 TV movie.

Disney also wants director Adam Shankman (BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE) to reunite with his pal Martin on the feature. The film is still in the early development phase.