Three Men Seeking Monsters
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on March 9th, 2007
Big news for UFOmystic’s Nick Redfern!
According to Variety, his book Three Men Seeking Monsters: Six Weeks in Pursuit of Werewolves, Lake Monsters, Giant Cats, Ghostly Devil Dogs, and Ape-Men has been acquired by Universal.
Universal acquires ‘Three Men’
Film being developed as a vehicle for Heder
Universal Pictures has acquired the Nick Redfern novel “Three Men Seeking Monsters: Six Weeks in Pursuit of Werewolves, Lake Monsters, Giant Cats, Ghostly Devil Dogs, and Ape-Men.”
The hope is to develop a film that could be a vehicle for Jon Heder, the “Napoleon Dynamite” star who’s about to open opposite Will Ferrell in “Blades of Glory.”
Jon, Doug and Dan Heder’s U-based Greasy Entertainment banner will produce with Ken Atchity of Atchity Entertainment Intl.
In the book, three guys who’ve separately chased monsters and UFOs unite for one last hurrah, taking one last caravan to every place in the British countryside where monsters have allegedly been spotted.
Book, a cult favorite in Britain, was published by Simon & Schuster.
Chi-li Wong will be exec producer, and Mike Kuciak will be a co-producer.Michael Fleming
Variety
Following is what other sources are saying regarding this exciting crypto movie deal.
Another Studio Gives Jon Heder a Project
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 Monsters, Giant Cats, Ghostly Devil Dogs, and Ape-Men. 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.Russ Fischer
Chud.com
and
Try to fit this title on a marquee: Three Men Seeking Monsters: Six Weeks in Pursuit of Werewolves, Lake Monsters, Giant Cats, Ghostly Devil Dogs, and Ape-Men. It’s the name of a book by Nick Redfern that Universal has just bought the rights to. Now get this: the book is non-fiction. Redfern is a Ufologist and his book tells of his adventure with two buddies as the trio visited legendary mysterious places around Great Britain, including Loch Ness. The best part is that Redfern is a punk, one of his friends is a goth herpetologist (a reptile and amphibian expert) and his other friend is 6’6″ and 400 pounds. Basically, this is the book I was craving as a subculture-centered, Fortean-minded, mysteries-of-the-unknown-obsessed teenager.
Fortunately, I never knew about this book (actually it came out many years after I’d stopped reading about UFOs and such), because if I was a fan and had looked forward to it being adapted into a movie, I would have been very disappointed to learn that Jon Heder is set to star. The one-note Napoleon Dynamite actor, who is surprisingly not yet a has-been despite not yet starring in another hit since his cult-fave introduction, will be producing with his brothers, Doug and Dan (his twin! there’s two of them!), and he is expected to play the author (who is bald). I’m not sure who he could get to play the big guy, but for the goth herpetologist let me suggest Heder’s School for Scoundrels co-star Todd Louiso, who has at least played a snake expert amusingly before, and who I can totally imagine dressing up to play Vampire: The Masquerade. Christopher Campbell
cinematical
Nick Redfern played by Napoleon Dynamite, hmmmmm? I’ll have to see it to believe it…
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
Another example of the defacto catagory that cryptozoology is filed under, somewhere between Dracula and Wolfman. All the efforts of sincere researchers who relentlessly pursue the truth with their own resources, who not only must contend with the adversaries in the natural world but also the scientific community who has their head stuck in the sand whilst letting their posteriors in harms way. Now Hollywood, who would sell their grandmother’s remains for a dollar. Entertaining fantasy at the expense of reality. The trend continues. Somewhere below infotainment on the intelligence scale…where’s my popcorn?
hey everyone this new book called men seeking monsters looks great. im sure the movie will even greater. thanks bill
I had made an earleir comment about there is no such thing as bad press, but I would have to agree with the above statement. It’s one thing to do a documentary on the squatch and leave certain details out, but when you get a comedy actor like Jon Heder to appear in a film about sasquatch you know the producers are not taking the subject serious. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see though.
I predict in the “what’s next” trending is a Saturday morning cartoon…nevermind..I forgot about the historically significant contribution of Scooby Doo.
Why do I get the feeling that the clause “…if it weren’t for those meddling kids!” is going to work itself into the dialogue?
I just hope this movie doesn’t give everyone the idea that all cryptids are some sort of paranormal creature. I read the book but was dismayed by its assertion that these creatures are really some sort of spiritual entity that comes to our world to feed off our belief. Worse, it brought forth the idea that these creatures might be summoned and, perhaps, controlled by the summoner. I believe those things exist, but I do not think Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, both of which are spoken of in Redfern’s book, or most other cryptids fall into that category.
Most importantly, if cryptids are so insubstantial then there is really no way to study them, much less capture one. And attempting to summon such a being could lead a person into greater dangers than they could imagine.
I’d like to add to my above post that while some creatures exhibit “high strangeness” (read paranormal) BF, and many others do so only atypically. Some, such as the black cats, have a reputation for disappearing, but cougars, like any cat, can move quickly and silently when it suits them. Cats of any size have always had a reputation for elusiveness.
Something as large as bigfoot might seem like it would kick up a lot of noise and be unable to hide in a woods, but I expect we’d be very surprised by how nimble it would really be.
We’re dealing with creatures that live in a wild environment, one that to them is as familiar and comfortable as our living rooms are to us. In their world we’re the noisy, clumsy beings.
It is not remarkable to me that they are most often encountered from a distance, or by those, such as hunters, who often remain silent and motionless for hours.
Hi all,
I thought it might be prudent to point out that it is the opinion of some Forteans that the book is a work of fiction and not occult as stated on the back of the book. Someone claiming to be one of the main protagonists has stated this on a Fortean forum. I just hope the movie doesn’t start making bold statements about it being “Based on real events”.
I found this revelation a but disappointing as Redfern is a credible researcher.
If someone out there could confirm that would be useful.