Variety reports that [REC] co-director Jaume Balagueró will direct Muse, a supernatural thriller that marks his return to English-language genre 12 years after his Miramax/Dimension breakout Darkness, co-starring a young Anna Paquin, grossed $22.2 million at the U.S. box office.

Also written by Balaguero and Spanish scribe Fernando Navarro, “Muse turns on Salomon, who has been off work since the tragic death off his girlfriend. Now, anxious to return to some semblance of normality, he goes back to his job as a police officer. But he hasn’t slept for months and has been suffering a recurring nightmare in which a woman is brutally murdered.

Back at work, the nightmare becomes a reality: the same woman who appears every night in his dreams is found dead in exactly the same circumstances. Now, Salomon will do whatever he can to solve this case and to discover the identity of the mystery woman.”

“This is just the kind of story that has always fascinated me, as a movie-goer and as a director. The combination of the supernatural, seduction, macabre rituals and love is an explosive one and has all the elements required to make a truly terrifying movie,” Balagueró said.

Muse is set up at Julio Fernandez’s Barcelona-based Filmax Ent., which has produced all of Balagueró’s movies since feature debut The Nameless, including Sleep Tight and the four-pic [REC] franchise. Filmax International will present it to buyers at the American Film Market. Julio Fernandez is producing.