It’s been almost five years since Gremlins director Joe Dante has been behind the camera, and sadly his last movie The Hole was almost completely ignored. Since then he has been trying to set up a Romeo and Juliet-inspired vampire/werewolf comedy called Monster Love and a ghost story called Casting the Runes with Simon Pegg. While it’s unclear whether either of those projects are moving forward, there is some good news on the horizon for Joe Dante fans: he has finally landed funding for a passion project that he has been trying to get off the ground for quite some time. The movie is called The Man With Kaleidoscope Eyes and it is a biopic based on the life of b-movie master Roger Corman (who, incidentally, helped give Joe Dante his start in Hollywood). Does that sound perfect or what?

According to Screen Daily, producer Saïd Ben Saïd (Passion, Carnage) has stepped up to produce The Man with Kaleidoscope Eyes through his company SBS Productions. The script was written by Charlie Largent and Tim Lucas (two of the folks behind Video Watchdog magazine) and Colin Firth was previously attached to star, although it’s unclear if he is still involved. Corman himself is on board to make a cameo and has reportedly “given the project his full blessing.”

Alex Stapleton recently covered Roger Corman’s career in a documentary called Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel, but Dante’s film will supposedly focus on the making of one specific movie. That movie is the 1967 psychedelic film The Trip, which was co-written by Jack Nicholson and involved the entire cast and crew dropping acid to prepare. Clearly this could be something very special, not to mention a solid return to form for Dante. Are you looking forward to The Man With Kaleidoscope Eyes?