News - Paranormal Activity 2 gets Palmed off?

OK, not normally a film which would interest me enough to post once, let alone twice but I just heard a rumour, courtesy again of AICN, that one of the directors up for the gig is a personal favourite of mine and somewhat legend in the field, Mr Brian De Palma. My interest just way peaked for this film now, I love Dressed to Kill and think Carrie is a work of genius filmic art, with some of the boldest directorial choices and shots ever commited to horror, it was even, for a time, a movie I quoted as my favourite. Sure there have been blips over the years with less than stellar movies but they always looked amazing and had a certain flair, not something I usually notice even but I am excited to see what can be brought to a tale which appeals to the ghost story nut part of me too.
Do check out the original article, by "Beaks" here.

In the interests of fairness and journalistic integrity two other names have also been proposed as possible helmers of this project: Brad Anderson and Greg McLean. Can't say I initially recognise either name though from whence this news originated, the site of the L.A Times:

"As for the young genre directors, they include a more Peli-ish group of freshmen and sophomores: Brad Anderson (director of a Woody Harrelson-Emily Mortimer thriller a few years back called "Transsiberian") and Greg McLean (a writer and director on an Australian horror movie called "Wolf Creek" -- another low-budget title that made a nice multiple, $16 million in U.S. box office)."

Interesting stuff, I'll be keeping my eye on this one now, and likely picking up the first movie on DVD.

MM

Brief Update III: The Search For Sense

Contrary to my previous report regarding Saw 6 director Kevin Greutert helming the Paranormal Activity sequel it now seems that his former pay masters aren't so keen to let him go and exercised a contract option forcing him into the big chair for the astronomic bad idea that is Saw 7: 3-D!!! For all the finer details check out this article from AICN.

In slightly more sane news the site is also reporting here that Avatar and Terminator Salvation star Sam Worthington is in talks with Universal to play the legendary dark prince of vampires in a rumoured Dracula: Year Zero project. Which sounds potentially like a good idea.

In other blog related news I just wanted to give all our readers a heads up that, as predicted, my digital t.v system has died on me. Sadly that means that I'm going to have to try and catch Being Human on downloads or DVD and as that is hard enough to schedule I have decided to knock the reviews on the head and probably just do another season summary like I did with the first run. However I am hoping to keep posting some thoughts on Survivors, the next episode of which airs tonight, so stay tuned...

MM

A Brief Update

Hi gang, apologies if things fall away a bit here but things are crazy hectic in my personal life at the moment and it's making it difficult to keep on top of things, I will try though. To that end sincere apologies on lack of a new Being Human review, they will probably continue to get later and briefer generally but I'm hoping to have something of decent size and quality down at the weekend. Now the "best laid plans" theory probably comes into play...
Anyways enough about me. I am writing with the news that last years "sleeper hit" Paranormal Activity has already been given a date, tentatively up against Saw 7 (seriously!) this winter, and will be directed, ironically enough, by Saw 6's Kevin Gruetert. On a side note what a horror movie name that guy has, it's almost the word gruesome but more twisted. Or is that just me? In any case I have to catch up on the first film on DVD when they extend days to 32 hours.
The series' original creator Oren Peli is busy on other projects but remains involved as a producer and has been talking up the sequel for worried fans, to be written by t.v veteran Michael R. Perry. Who? Well according to AICN:

"Writer Perry has previously scripted multiple episodes of MILLENNIUM, LAW & ORDER: SVU (he was also a producer on that series), and THE DEAD ZONE for television."

I'm not sure if I have any strong feelings about this but I hope I enjoy the first movie and that this doesn't suck, too much of that around, and isn't horribly derivative or sloppy. Hopefully be posting more soon...

MM