20th Century Fox has acquired the rights to classic children’s TV show Rentaghost, the film of which will star Ben Stiller.

This time last year it looked as if Warner Bros were going to buy the rights to the BBC show, which ran from 1976-84, but when intended star Russell Brand pulled out in the wake of Arthur‘s dismal showing the deal was never closed.

The original show dealt with the novel idea of a temping agency which rented ghosts and ghouls out to the living; the new script, written by Night at the Museum scribes Tom Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, will apparently see Stiller playing an American business guru who travels to the UK to turn around a failing company. A company of GHOSTLY GHOSTLY GHOSTS, one imagines. Watch this space…