After the breakout success of Paranormal Activity 2, director Oren Peli surprised many by going straight off and helming another no-budget feature, the upcoming Area 51, which will once again use the found footage ruse, but this time concerning aliens.
However, while he’s set himself up to produce some slightly more expensive films, it now looks like he’s planning to direct one, as Variety reports he’s signed up to helm Eliza Graves. Loosely based on a story by Edgar Allen Poe, Joe Gangemi’s screenplay is about a Harvard Medical School graduate who takes a job at an insane asylum, unaware of the fact that it has been taken over by its occupants. While the idea of the lunatics taking over the asylum seems a bit cliched, hopefully there’s something a bit more interesting to it that has attracted Peli.
It’s a film that’s been in development for a long time – nearly a decade – with the likes of Jodie Foster previouslysniffing around to direct, while Ian McKellen and Natalie Portman have been talked about for starring roles, however at the moment Peli is the only talent officially attached.