One of the scenes you’ll probably never see in the CHUD.com movie involved a couple of minor characters hunting for the autographs of famous — and not-so famous — monsters. The next best thing might be Nick Redfern’s novel Three Men Seeking Monsters: Six Weeks in Pursuit of Werewolves, Lake Monster, Giant Cats, Ghostly Devil Dogs, and Ape-Men. (Buy it from CHUD! I dare you.) The book is a travelogue, in which Redfern and two friends traipse across hill and dale in the UK, getting soused at pubs while attempting to track down several of the island’s more storied, and possibly mythical, inhabitants.
Now, in a move that resembles, and possibly even tops the casting of an American as the lead of The Beach, Universal has picked up the novel to develop as a vehicle for…Jon Heder? Heder and his brothers Doug and Dan will produce the picture under their Greasy Entertainment banner in collaboration with Ken Atchity.
It’s not that I don’t understand the thought process here — Three Men Seeking Monsters is a great story idea, no matter where it’s set. You’ve got three friends, all of whom are real-world ‘monster hunters’, uniting for a last guy’s trip out to the country, drenched in beer and folklore. So yes, Heder could work this into something suitable for his…appeal…just as well as Fox Animation could use the framework to revive the Chipmunks. With Jason Lee on board, they’d really have something!
So maybe, when I really think about it, it’s not that the book is being developed for an American star, because that could probably work. The problem lies entirely with the fact that the star is Jon Heder.