50 Cent On For Odd Thomas

Hey, Kowalski. You out there?" These words will (presumably) not be spoken by Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson when he inhabits the role of a blind DJ in Odd Thomas. But if he can channel even 10% of Cleavon Little's similarly employed and vision-impaired Super Soul cool from Vanishing Point, he'll be doing well.

If the film is sticking closely to the Dean Koontz source novel, then Fiddy won't have much to work with, since the character, Shamus Cocobolo, apparently only appears in a handful of pages. Variety describe him as helping Anton Yelchin's psychic chef Thomas "uncover a satanic plot" though, so it's possible that Stephen Sommers' screenplay has upgraded him to sidekick status.

That, or he'll be providing cryptically hipster support over the airwaves: "There goes Thomas, being chased by the Fungus Man and Elvis... They're gettin' closer to our soul hero... Yeah, baby! They gonna get him, smash him... The super short-order cook of the golden west..."

In book form, Odd Thomas is followed by Forever Odd, Brother Odd and Odd Hours. There's also a comic-book prequel, In Odd We Trust, so Sommers, directing as well as writing, must have his fingers crossed for a new franchise. The initial tale of supernatural shenanigans overrunning the desert town of Pico Mundo stars Willem Dafoe, Addison Timlin and Patton Oswalt alongside Yelchin and Fiddy, and shooting starts imminently in New Mexico.