New Line has been working on an English-language remake of The Orphanage for a while now, with Guilermo Del Toro producing. However the last we heard, Larry Fessenden, who’d been hired to co-write (with Del Toro) and probably direct the adaptation said that the studio had decided to go in a different direction and he wouldn’t be stepping behind the camera.
Well, now we know his replacement, as Variety reports that Mark Pellington has been hired to take over the story of a woman who returns to the orphanage where she grew up and decides to reopen it, only to be haunted by all manner of spooky goings on, which leads to the disappearance of her son.
The hiring of Pellington is a safe but relatively undistinguished choice. He’s worked on thrillers before with the likes of Arlington Road and Mothman Prophecies. While the latter was interesting, neither marked him out as someone who might have a genuinely interesting take of The Orphanage. Indeed recently Pellington has mostly being making music videos, TV shows and concert films, such as the recent U2 3D.
However Guilermo Del Toro is normally pretty good at spotting talent, so maybe he’s seen something in Pellington that we haven’t.