Movies
Paramount Pictures Punching Up ‘Paranormal’ Director’s ‘Area 51’
Bloody Disgusting is being told that director/actor Chris Denham has been hired to do some rewrites on Area 51, Paranormal Activity director Oren Peli’s sophomore effort that will also go back behind cameras to shoot some addition footage.
The film, which stars Reid Warner, Darrin Bragg, and Ben Rovner, employs the “found footage” narrative structure that Peli used in Paranormal Activity to tell the story of three teens whose curiosity leads them to the notorious Area 51 portion of Nellis Air Force Base in the Nevada desert.
As we always like to remind readers, additional photography isn’t always a negative. Many times it’s to add more gore, an intense scene, or to just string together the story a bit more. Paramount also had Super 8 on their release schedule, so it seemed kind of odd to release two similar themed (yet completely polar opposite in budgetary costs) films in the same quarter. I personally cannot wait to see what Peli’s second directorial effort produces.
Since the release of Paranormal, Peli has also produced Insidious and Rob Zombie’s forthcoming The Lords of Salem. He is also the creator/producer on ABC’s forthcoming pilot “The River”. Big stuff!
Movies
’28 Years Later’ – Ralph Fiennes, Jodie Comer, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson Join Long Awaited Sequel
Danny Boyle and Alex Garland (Annihilation, Men), the director and writer behind 2002’s hit horror film 28 Days Later, are reteaming for the long-awaited sequel, 28 Years Later. THR reports that the sequel has cast Jodie Comer (Alone in the Dark, “Killing Eve”), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kraven the Hunter), and Ralph Fiennes (The Menu).
The plan is for Garland to write 28 Years Later and Boyle to direct, with Garland also planning on writing at least one more sequel to the franchise – director Nia DaCosta is currently in talks to helm the second installment.
No word on plot details as of this time, or who Comer, Taylor-Johnson, and Fiennes may play.
28 Days Later received a follow up in 2007 with 28 Weeks Later, which was executive produced by Boyle and Garland but directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. Now, the pair hope to launch a new trilogy with 28 Years Later. The plan is for Garland to write all three entries, with Boyle helming the first installment.
Boyle and Garland will also produce alongside original producer Andrew Macdonald and Peter Rice, the former head of Fox Searchlight Pictures, the division of one-time studio Twentieth Century Fox that originally backed the British-made movie and its sequel.
The original film starred Cillian Murphy “as a man who wakes up from a coma after a bicycle accident to find England now a desolate, post-apocalyptic collapse, thanks to a virus that turned its victims into raging killers. The man then navigates the landscape, meeting a survivor played by Naomie Harris and a maniacal army major, played by Christopher Eccleston.”
Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) is on board as executive producer, though the actor isn’t set to appear in the film…yet.
Talks of a third installment in the franchise have been coming and going for the last several years now – at one point, it was going to be titled 28 Months Later – but it looks like this one is finally getting off the ground here in 2024 thanks to this casting news. Stay tuned for more updates soon!
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