Ian Somerhalder, formerly of Lost and currently starring in TV's The Vampire Diaries, has signed on to star in Cradlewood, a "romantic gothic fairy tale" set in Boston.

Somerhalder will play the son of an old Boston blue-blood family, the heir to a fortune, who's dating an Australian girl (Emma Lung, Triangle). A family legend of his suggests that the family fortunes are tied up with a demon, and that a curse means that every time a boy is born into the family, his father dies. When he begins to experience strange things at the same time he starts suspecting his girlfriend is pregnant, he begins to worry that it's not just an old wives' tale.

It's an interesting premise, although we're struggling a little to see the "romance" at this point. It's set to be directed by Harry Weinmann, who previously directed animated short Succubus: The Movie (love that title) and worked on visual effects for the likes of Race to Witch Mountain. He also came up with the story, which was then script-ified by Stephen Sewell and John Paul Chapple.