14 DAY TRIAL // Last year’s biggest “little film that could” was undoubtedly “Paranormal Activity,” a horror faux-video diary made on as little as $11,000 and that managed to gross over $150 million at the international box-office. Not only was this small project a hit with audiences, but critics too were won over by its Audacity and high standards. As such, talk of a sequel started almost immediately after the film arrived in theaters, with the “Saw VI” director now being officially attached to helm “Paranormal Activity 2,” as The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The irony of having Kevin Greutert, director of “Saw VI,” at the helm of “Paranormal Activity” aside (given that the two films went neck and neck at the box office last year, with the former losing miserably to the latest underdog of the horror genre), things are starting to shape up for the sequel, reports say. The director and writer Oren Peli will be kept on the payroll, but this time only as producer, as Greutert will handle directing the sequel.
“Something’s moving in the ‘Paranormal Activity 2’ house. Paramount has hired screenwriter Michael R. Perry and director Kevin Greutert to create the sequel to 2009’s biggest surprise hit, ‘Paranormal Activity,’ which scared up $151 million in worldwide grosses in the fall on a shoestring $15,000 budget and a shrewd, opt-in Web marketing campaign,” THR writes.
“Jason Blum and Oren Peli, who masterminded the first ‘Activity,’ are producing the second iteration. Steven Schneider will serve as executive producer. ‘These guys get it, and the fans won’t be disappointed,’ said Peli of Perry and Greutert’s participation. Unsurprisingly, the filmmakers are keeping the story line – as well as the film’s actual title – hidden in the attic,” the same media outlet further informs.
Fans of the film and implicitly the genre are now hoping that “Activity 2” will not turn into “Blair Witch Project 2,” the movie it can best be compared to. When the original “Blair Witch” came out in 1999, also shot with a single regular video camera and a cast of only 3, it went to gross $240 million at the box office and create a cult following. “Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2” came out the next year and barely managed to make $26 million, being considered a total disappointment by fans and critics alike.