Joel Schumacher making The Barry White Story

Joel Schumacher

Joel Schumacher has set his sights on Barry White for his next big screen project.

So he’s helming a biopic of the famous soulful singer? Nope! Instead of following the tried and true biopic route, Schumacher has other plans for his crooning (and sadly deceased, as of 2003) cool dude.

Pajiba report that the (entirely fictional) film will follow “the ghost of Barry White teaching some loser kid how to channel him to get a girl”.

Cough. Splutter. Etc. Aside from being a completely barmy idea, it’s not even an original one – the same concept was plundered for hilarious effect during a five-season-long running gag on Ally McBeal , in which Peter MacNicol needed White’s inspiration to buoy his confidence. Nice one, Schu.

Schumacher has been on a bit of a downward spiral ever since the mid-'90s (we're still not over Batman & Robin ), his latest film Twelve having failed to take even $1m at the US box office this year. Sounds like he needs a bit of help from White himself…

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.