A script penned by Michigan State alumna Paula Rahn has been made into a movie which is set to premiere this month at Lifetime Movie Network.
The film titled “His Killer Fan,” is about a girl who gets to sing with her celebrity crush, and what happens when she starts to get obsessive as he grows close to her best friend, according to Rahn.
She said the film is like “Swimfan” meets “A Star is Born.”
“The protagonist, Kaylee, she’s really the everyday girl with a lot of hopes and dreams, and her best friend, Ariana, is the one that just takes things too far,” Rahn said.
She said she wrote the script in a weekend, but it has been two-and-a-half years in the making as she did rewrites with the film’s director, Marguerite Henry.
Rahn said she met Henry, who was already an accomplished producer, at a stand-up class in Los Angeles, to whom she pitched a Christmas film idea to. A week later, she said, Henry called and told her her company would buy it.
“It was a lot of luck, also coupled with a great idea meeting a person who was not in competition with me,” Rahn said. “We really want to see each other succeed.”
Since then, three Rahn-written Christmas scripts have been made into Lifetime movies. “His Killer Fan” marks the first thriller script of Rahn’s to be produced.
“The movies that I’ve sold and that have been produced and aired have all been Christmas movies,” Rahn said. “So, this is quite the diversion for me, but something I’ve always wanted to get into.”
For her thriller script, she found inspiration from her past collegiate experiences in East Lansing.
“There’s something about, for me, fall and the town of East Lansing,” Rahn said. “In my mind, it’s the backdrop for this movie because it’s a college town, it's super exciting, it's filled with people planning these bright futures.”
Rahn graduated in 1995 and studied human resources while she was at the university.
She cited Mac’s Bar, Beggar’s Banquet, Dublin Square and the now-closed USA Cafe as other places that impacted the script.
“Everybody comes to see and appreciate this local talent in such an exciting place, and they leave those places with an air of excitement and (Ariana) leaves disappointed,” Rahn said.
Rahn also noted R.E.M. and Radiohead’s 1995 concert at the Breslin Center as an influence on the film.
“I imagine what it would’ve been like to walk up those steps and sing with Thom Yorke or Michael Stipe, and how that would’ve been enough for a regular person to go home and brag about, but it wasn’t enough for (Ariana),” Rahn said.
As for what follows “His Killer Fan,” Rahn said she has an unnamed Christmas product in preproduction and is doing a lot of pitching.
Rahn said she hopes to land a deal with Netflix or another streaming service for some of her other projects.
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“It’s a big deal in this world of movies, this scale of movies, to go onto Lifetime Movie Network,” Rahn said. “So, it’s kind of a strike while the iron’s hot thing.”
“His Killer Fan” premieres on Feb. 19, 2021 on the Lifetime Movie Network.
