When you hear that SyFy Films has made a deal for a new project, you’d be forgiving for having your brain head straight towards Monster Squid Vs. Giant Kittenbot territory. But it’s actually just a label for the company to work with Universal to release low-budget genre pics that don’t always have to feature massive creatures fighting while C-list celebrities spout dodgy dialogue. Which is good news for Rob Letterman and The Paranormalists.
Letterman, who made DreamWorks ‘toon **Monsters Vs. Aliens **and (whisper) the shonky Gulliver’s Travels, is set to write and direct the film, which will apply the well-established found footage genre to the story of a group entering a haunted house intending to debunk the locals’ claims of phantoms. Naturally, because we’d all be disappointed otherwise, things don’t go quite according to plan. We’re guessing either the place ends up truly haunted or it’s Old Man Withers, the janitor, who would’ve gotten away with it if it wasn’t for those meddling kids.
The plan is to make this one a little quirkier and funnier than, say, your usual Paranormal Activity clones. There’s no word on when Letterman will get started on the film.