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Tuesday
06Oct2009

'Paranormal Activity' Director Heads to 'Area 51'

DateTuesday, October 6, 2009 at 8:17AM
With the news hitting this weekend that Paranormal Activity will be expanding to wide release this weekend, it wouldn't be long before we heard an update or two on what that film's director, Oren Peli would be up to next.

Of course, we knew what he would be doing, a film based on Area 51 that claims that title as well, but we didn't know exactly when that would move forward. And now that his current film has exploded, word comes from Variety that Area 51 will start production next week and will use the same basic structure of Paranormal Activity, meaning the "found footage" structure.

Based on the microscopic budget for Paranormal Activity, his new film's $5 million price tag is about 400 times as much money to play with. Not surprisingly, given the subject matter, Peli won't reveal much about his next project.

"I'd rather not say anything about Area 51 except that I am very pleased to be working with the same team who stood by me for the two or three years it took Paranormal Activity to get into theaters," Peli told Variety.

But there is a big reveal here: One of the film's money men, David Molner, says he smells a franchise here. I don't really know if this style of psuedo-doc works well for sequels, but at least they're confident in what they've got.

AuthorColin Boyd | | in | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment1 Comment |

Reader Comments (1)

I know a few folks that hate Paranormal Activity, because they think of these kinds of films as "cheat" movies. Personally, I liked it, even if it's flawed for sure, it's still impressive to pull off a movie for $15k in a week. I wrote about this in my own Paranormal Activity review, if you care to share it. I'll definitely check out his next film, but I'm hoping he's improved his storytelling.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterEric

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