Ellen DeGeneres: Supreme being

Los Angeles, Aug. 24 (AP): Comedian Ellen DeGeneres is getting a promotion — to supreme being.

DeGeneres will star as God in a remake of the 1977 comedy Oh, God! The original starred George Burns as the creator and John Denver as a supermarket manager tapped as a new prophet.

“Ellen is a strong comedian and she has always done material about God and questions about God,” said Jerry Weintraub, who produced the original movie and also will oversee the remake.

Weintraub said he’ll hire a screenwriter and director with the aim to shoot the movie during a break in DeGeneres' schedule from her talk show next summer.

Though successful on the small screen, DeGeneres misfired in an earlier transition to film with the romantic-comedy flop Mr. Wrong.

She helped score a hit with her voice work on last year’s animated tale Finding Nemo.

Ellen lends her voice for the absent-minded fish Dory, who helps Marlin, a clown fish, find his lost son Nemo who gets separated from his father on the Great Barrier Reef.