Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Dexter creator James Manos Jr and Michael C. Hall will collaborate on the big screen after Hall wraps the sixth season as the strangely likable serial killer title character hatched in the Jeff Lindsay novel series. They will team on the independent feature Love, Scotch and Death, with Hall playing a character based on Manos, during a most stressful week filled with unimaginable mishaps. Vera Farmiga will star with Hall. Manos will make his feature directing debut, with shooting to begin in November.

When Manos first wrote the script, he called it The Slow And Complete Decompensation of Jim Manos. It covers a rather bizarre week in the man’s life. After returning from a stressful vacation, he discovers his parents have died of natural causes together in bed, which forces him to navigate his way past an unsympathetic funeral director, his bewildered children and manic wife, an eccentric priest and some over-sexed neighbors. There is also an arrest for assault and the death of his wife’s beloved dog.

Manos is an Emmy winner for his writing work on The Sopranos and was also a writer and consulting producer on The Shield before creating Dexter for Showtime. Hollywood Studios International is handling worldwide sales, with HSI’s Dave Brown will produce along with Paul Schiff. Manos’ head of production, Michelle Trump, will also be a producer. Authentic’s Jon Rubinstein will be exec producer with HSI’s Steven Saxton and Eric Christenson.

HSI will finance the film and sell territories at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival. HSI is getting more active in generating its own projects, and it has made a first-look deal with Schiff, producer of Rushmore and Solitary Man.