Leslie Mann just became the newest edition of an ensemble comedy entitled Blithe Spirit. Joining Dan Stevens, Isla Fisher, Emilia Fox, and Judi Dench, Mann is the most recent add-on to an already beefy cast. Directed by Edward Hall of Downtown Abbey fame, with a script compiled by writers Nick Moorcroft, Meg Leonard and Piers Ashworth, the film has already entered production according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Blithe Spirit is a complete re-imagining of Noël Coward’s timeless work, which sees Stevens play an award-winning crime author enduring a painful struggle with writer’s block, making him desperately seek inspiration. This mad inspiration leads to the author inviting a fraud into his home, causing the plot to ensue.
Leonard and Moorcroft recently had a hand in the film’s production with James Spring, who will serve as the chief executive. The three previously worked on U.K. made films such as Fisherman’s Friends, Pirate Radio and The Wickerman.

Blithe Spirit was picked up StudioCanal and will be produced by Fred Films and Powder Keg Pictures. The film will undergo its first reboot since the 1945 adaptation directed by David Lean, which starred Rex Harrison, Margaret Rutherford and Constance Cummings. The 1945 film received positive reviews at the time of its release but was a box office failure for General Film Distributors, despite winning the 1947 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.