Jessica Simpson in Mort, The Dead Teenager! Source: aintherenow Wednesday, September 3, 2003
Jessica Simpson has been in the press quite a bit lately for her new album "In This Skin" and her new MTV reality show, "Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica". The singer continues to mention a Marvel project she's involved with (she said so even here on a Houston radio station), but when asked which movie it is she's been tightlipped. Jessica has also mentioned that your everyday person would probably not know about it.
Thanks to scooper 'aintherenow', who appears reliable, the project is actually the big screen adaptation of Marvel Comics' Mort, The Dead Teenager. Quentin Tarantino will executive produce. His production company, A Band Apart, and Madonna's Maverick Films will co-produce the film to be distributed by Dimension Films. According to Jessica's manager and father, she will play the female lead in the action comedy to be released in the summer of 2004.
The cult comic classic, from creator Larry Hama, is about a slacker teenager who is hit by a train and killed. After his death, he meets Teeth Death, who tells Mort that he must now haunt those that he knew in his life.
"The film is a completely unique look at adolescence as seen through the eyes of a fantasy. It speaks to teen-agers everywhere," Zachary Feurer, a producer at Maverick Films, said previously. "It's a teen comedy with a 'Beetlejuice' sensibility."
Dominique Swain and Elijah Wood were previously rumored to be considered for the lead roles.