Kathy Charles wrote the novel, which Joan Singleton will adapt and produce with her husband, Ralph S. Singleton.

John Belushi Is Dead Heads to the Big Screen
November 11th, 2010

Tags: Joan Singleton, Ralph S. Singleton, John Belushi Is Dead, Adaptation, Adaptation movie, Los Angeles, Celebrity murder, Celebrity suicide, news, headline, story


Variety is reporting that producers Joan Singleton and Ralph S. Singleton (Because of Winn-Dixie) have acquired the rights to the novel John Belushi Is Dead for a new big screen adaptation.

Kathy Charles wrote the novel, which Joan Singleton will adapt and produce with her husband, Ralph S. Singleton. Here's a plot description, which was published by MTV Books in August:

"In the end we all fade to black.

Pink-haired Hilda and oddball loner Benji are not your typical teenagers. Instead of going to parties or hanging out at the mall, they comb the city streets and suburban culs-de-sac of Los Angeles for sites of celebrity murder and suicide. Bound by their interest in the macabre, Hilda and Benji neglect their schoolwork and their social lives in favor of prowling the most notorious crime scenes in Hollywood history and collecting odd mementos of celebrity death.

Hilda and Benji's morbid pastime takes an unexpected turn when they meet Hank, the elderly, reclusive tenant of a dilapidated Echo Park apartment where a silent movie star once stabbed himself to death with a pair of scissors. Hilda feels a strange connection with Hank and comes to care deeply for her paranoid new friend as they watch old movies together and chat the sweltering afternoons away. But when Hank's downstairs neighbor Jake, a handsome screenwriter, inserts himself into the equation and begins to hint at Hank's terrible secrets, Hilda must decide what it is she's come to Echo Park searching for . . . and whether her fascination with death is worth missing out on life."

The feature rights to the novel occurred at the famous Chateau Marmont hotel in Hollywood, which is where actor John Belushi actually did die in 1982. The book also mentions the deaths of James Dean, Marilyn Monroe and Sharon Tate. No studio is attached to the project at this time.