Given the healthy returns for skimpy budgets offered by the Paranormal Activity series, it’s not surprising that Paramount would want to try to milk that cash cow for all the spooky juice it has to offer. Now the studio, along with the producing team behind the franchise, are looking at ways to get even more value, planning to create what they’re calling a “cousin” to the series.
But don’t go thinking that we’ll be digging into the background of annoying Activity character Micah anytime soon; the idea this time is to follow a completely different set of characters, featuring a Catholic-based supernatural mythology and an all-Latino cast.
Paranormal overlords Oren Peli (who wrote and directed the film that kicked the whole thing off) and Jason Blum will produce as usual, with Christopher Landon handling both script and directing duties. He’s also experienced with the films, since he wrote the second and third outings.
Given the swift turnaround for these films, the studio is hoping to kick off shooting in the next few months and, with luck, have something in cinemas by January. The fourth regular Activity movie, meanwhile, will arrive in October.
Peli and Blum have become something of a factory farm for found-footage fear projects, spearheading their own (Area 51) and seeding others (Chernobyl Diaries, US TV’s The River) like an infectious, cost-conscious disease…