Horror News: Director James Wan to Hunt a Spectre; Catfish Helmers to Tackle Paranormal Activity 3
Posted 05.09.11 by Ryan
With Insidious currently playing in theaters and quietly becoming a huge box office success ($50.3 million on a $1.5 million budget), director James Wan has already lined up his next project.
According to Variety, Wan will direct the supernatural thriller Spectre as his next project. While it should come as no surprise that the director of the original Saw would stay within the horror genre for his next movie, the report surprisingly claims that Nicole Kidman is in talks to star in the movie (Her involvement is unconfirmed at present.)
Further details on Spectre are unknown, including whether Wan will reunite with his Saw and Insidious screenwriter Leigh Whannell, though it is likely since Wan and Whanell have collaborated in some way on every project the two have been associated with since the original Saw.
The Saw series may have lasted for seven installments, but it is no longer the perennial October horror franchise. That month now belongs to the Paranormal Activity movies, the third of which received its release date late last year even before naming a director or screenwriter. Months later, the creative team for Paranormal Activity 3 has been announced.
Variety reports that Paranormal Activity 2 screenwriter Christopher B. Landon will write the third installment while Catfish co-directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman will direct.
Joost and Schulman seem like a natural progression for a franchise that drew attention after Oren Peli's original became a media sensation with its $15,000 budget and public campaign for its release. The first Paranormal scored $193 million in worldwide box office, and while Catfish didn't achieve the same financial success, the movie also became a cultural phenomenon after many questioned the documentary's authenticity.
Peli will again produce the Paranormal sequel, which will likely have to start production fairly soon to make its October 21 release date.