Hammer [Woman In Black] acquires 2011 Black List spec script thriller “Gaslight” from writer Ian Fried. From THR:

The screenplay, which landed on Hollywood’s Black List of the best unproduced scripts in 2011, is described as in the vein of From Hell, the Alan Moore Victorian-age Jack the Ripper tale, and The Silence of the Lambs, which famously introduced serial killer Hannibal Lecter to the world.

In Gaslight, Jack the Ripper, secretly imprisoned in a London insane asylum, is called upon to help Scotland yard solve a series if murders that share the iconic death brand: dual puncture wounds to the neck.

Here we have another case of a screenwriter taking an historical figure, fictional or non-fictional, then giving their character a spin. As noted in this March 21, 2010 post which looked at a slew of new action heroes including Sherlock Holmes, Abraham Lincoln, Queen Victoria, and Leonardo da Vinci, “Gaslight” takes a Nemesis figure [Jack the Ripper] and switches him into the role of a Protagonist.

Ian Fried is repped by WME and Prolific Entertainment.

By my count, this is the 10th spec script sale of 2012.

Last year at this time, there had been 3 spec sales.

Spec script sales are up 233% compare to 2011.