Seeing as he appeared in commercials, had his own television series, and starred in nine feature films, you would think that the character of Ernest P. Worrell was one of the most hilarious and beloved in comedy history. But that’s not exactly the case. As a matter of fact, you would probably be hard-pressed to find anyone willing to admit to ever liking an Ernest movie these days (full disclosure: I still consider Goes to Camp, Saves Christmas, and Scares Stupid to be guilty pleasures). We must have all just been experiencing some mass hallucination throughout the 80s and early 90s, and there’s no way anybody could make any money by trying to market another Ernest product in this day and age, right? Well, don’t tell that to RuckusFILM, as they’re trying to bring the character back in a new feature called Son of Ernest. As announced in a press release (which was originally given exclusively to Variety) today, Ernest creator John Cherry, along with Ruckus’ Clarke Gallivan and Coke Sams, and screenwriter Dan Ewen, hope that there’s still enough affection for the denim-vested friend of Vern to transition the character from the late Jim Varney to a new actor, who will essentially be doing the same schtick under the guise of being Ernest’s son. You know what this means, don’t you? Ernest got laid!

There’s some good news and some bad news when it comes to Dan Ewen’s spec script Dear Satan. The first bit of good news is that it’s an original idea that sounds funny. The second bit is that its originality has been rightly rewarded by one of the big studios, as 20th Century Fox just bought it with intentions of putting it into development. Variety broke the story, and says that the script was inspired by a child the screenwriter was babysitting making a crucial misspelling when addressing her yearly letter to Santa Claus. Ewen says of the experience, “There was this cute little card, covered in candy canes and glitter. I fell in love with the idea of this note mistakenly being delivered to the Prince of Darkness and the fiery wackiness that would ensue.” In his script said wackiness actually does ensue, as Satan receives the letter by mistake and ends up bringing the little girl a toy.