He might have made his name with low-fi, micro-budget chiller Paranormal Activity, but it looks like director Oren Peli is channelling a master of horror for a future job, as he’s signed on to make Eliza Graves for Icon Productions, loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story.
Peli, who is following up Paranormal with found footage film Area 51, is the man the producers think can rescue Graves from limbo, as it’s been wandering the halls of Hollywood since at least 2001. Johnny Depp was offered the lead at one point, and Natalie Portman, Ian McKellen and Heath Ledger were attached. And at a different time, Jodie Foster flirted with directing the script, which was written by Joe Gangemi.
Set around the start of the 20th Century (unless it’s been re-written since then), Graves finds a recent Harvard Medical School gradate going to work at an insane asylum. But as he starts his job, he begins to realise that the place is actually run by the patients. And he might not be all he seems, either…
Films inspired by the works/life of Poe have become something of a trend recently, with more than one either in development or, in the case of James McTeigue’s The Raven about to start shooting.
Peli will likely kick into gear on Graves as soon as he’s finished editing Area 51.