March 21, 2012 - 16:28 AMT
"Night at the Museum" screenwriters to direct "Hell Baby" horror-comedy

"Night at the Museum" screenwriters Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant are making their directorial debut with "Hell Baby" a horror-comedy that Darko Entertainment and Principato-Young Entertainment are producing, the companies said, according to The Wrap.

Filming will begin in New Orleans in April.

Rob Corddry ("Adult Swim," "W.," "Seeking a Friend for the End of the World") and Leslie Bibb ("Ironman," the TV series "GCB") star as an expectant couple that moves to the most haunted fixer-upper in New Orleans, and calls the Vatican's best exorcism team to rescue them from a demonic baby. Lennon and Garant play the exorcists.

The duo has written nine movies together, including "Hell Baby," "Night at the Museum," "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian," "Taxi," "Reno 911!: Miami," "Balls of Fury" and "The Pacifier." The two are now working on "Rentaghost."

While "Hell Baby" marks the pair's directorial debut, Garant directed "Reno 911!: Miami" and "Balls of Fury," along with numerous episodes of the television show "Reno 911!"

Darko Entertainment, which finances modestly budgeted, director-driven films, is financing "Hell Baby." The company's projects include "God Bless America," Bobcat Goldthwait's follow-up to "World's Greatest Dad," also a Darko Entertainment production. The company also plans to make "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies."

Principato-Young is a management and production now in preproduction on Lionsgate's "Jessabelle," with Blumhouse Pictures.