Paramount’s Paranormal Activity reboot sets lead cast
Just a month after it was announced that the forthcoming reboot of the hit horror franchise would be going straight to recently-rebranded Paramount+, Paramount’s latest Paranormal Activity film has built its cast with the additions of Emily Bader, Roland Buck III, Dan Lippert and Henry Ayers-Brown, according to The Wrap.
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Plot details regarding the seventh installment in the series, which is being produced by Paramount Players, are currently being kept under wraps though sources have consistently reported that the film would not be a remake or a continuation but rather an “unexpected retooling” of the franchise that has come before. The film is being penned by Christoper Landon, who served as the primary screenwriter for the series having penned the script for the second through fourth entries and writing and directing the 2014 spin-off The Marked Ones, with William Eubank (Underwater) attached to direct.
The franchise hit its ten-year anniversary in 2019, with the first film having blown up at the domestic box office and setting the horror world ablaze with a newfound interest in the found footage genre, being produced on a budget of $15,000 dollars and grossing over $193 million worldwide.
Paranormal Activity was followed by five sequels, exploring the different corners of the vague mythos established in the first film and culminating in 2015’s 3D sequel, The Ghost Dimension. The six movies have brought in over $890 million worldwide, an impressive haul for their micro-budgets and setting the series up as one of the many fan favorite horror franchises in the mid 2000s.
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Director Oren Peli helmed the original film in the franchise, and unsuccessfully tried to replicate the success of the film with other found footage projects like Chernobyl Diaries and Area 51 in theaters, plus The River on ABC. The franchise also attracted Catfish filmmakers Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman who directed the third and fourth movies in the series.
The seventh Paranormal Activity was previously set to hit theaters on March 19 then slated for a March 4, 2022 release, though with its new Paramount+ debut it’s currently unknown if the film will keep this date.